This has been one of our most requested features, especially with tools like Cursor becoming more popular. The new Preferences interface lays the groundwork for supporting even more tools over time.

How to configure your preferences

To set your preferred code editor and terminal, open the Settings modal. Click “Howdy, [your name]” or “WordPress.com login” if you’re not signed in.

Select the Preferences tab in the modal window. From there, you can choose your preferred code editor and terminal application.

The following options are currently supported:

Code editors:

• Visual Studio Code
• Cursor
• Windsurf
• PHPStorm
• WebStorm

Terminal applications:

• Terminal (Mac)
• Command Prompt (Windows)
• Warp
• Ghostty (Mac)
• iTerm2 (Mac)

Note: To appear as selectable options in your Studio Preferences, the applications must be installed on your computer. On macOS, they need to be in /Applications or /Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Applications.

Once you have made your selections, click Save. You can change your preferences at any time. 

Once saved, the buttons on each site’s Overview tab will update to match your chosen tools. Here, you can see the user has configured the Terminal app on Mac and Cursor.

What’s next for Studio?

We’re actively improving Studio to make it the best local WordPress development tool. Here are a few updates coming in the future:

• Integration with Pressable: Sync and deploy full sites to Pressable-hosted websites.
• An enhanced command-line interface (CLI): Studio will better support streamlined development workflows.

You can track progress, preview upcoming features, and make your own requests in the Studio GitHub repository.

Studio is just over a year old, and 2025 will be an important year for the open source project. If you haven’t recently used Studio, now is a great time to download the latest version for free and explore new features like Studio Assistant and Studio Sync.

If you’re interested in contributing to Studio, perhaps by adding support for additional code editors or terminal applications, we would love to see your contributions in the GitHub repository.

In this guide, you’ll learn several ways to add custom block styles in WordPress, whether you’re working with a theme or a plugin. We’ll cover options using JSON (theme.json), PHP (register_block_style()), and JavaScript, with clear guidance on which method suits which situation.

You will also learn how to remove core block styles from the editor and curate the experience for your content creators. 

The theme.json code refers to block styles as “variations” (short for “block style variations”), which is sometimes confused with block variations or Global Styles variations. This post refers to these as “block styles” to avoid confusion.

This post starts with simple examples and gradually introduces more advanced methods for adding block styles, from quick theme tweaks to plugin-based approaches.

The code referenced in this post is also available on GitHub: 

• Theme: plain-pauli
• Plugin: block-styles

You’ll want to have a basic understanding of CSS to follow along. Being comfortable with theme.json is also key, and knowing a bit about PHP and WordPress hooks will definitely come in handy.

To follow along or use the example code, you can use Studio, our free and open source local development environment, available for Mac and Windows.

1. What are custom block styles?
2. Method 1: add a block style via a JSON file (/styles folder) 
3. Method 2: register block style in PHP and style it via theme.json
   1. Register block style 
   2. Add styling to theme.json
4. Method 3: add a block style with register_block_style() (PHP)
   1. 3a. Use the style_data parameter
   2. 3b. Use the inline_style parameter
   3. 3c. Use the style_handle parameter
5. Method 4: register block styles using JavaScript + CSS
6. Optional: removing unwanted core block styles
7. Summary: custom block styles at a glance
8. Resources to learn more

What are custom block styles?

Custom block styles let you define alternative visual treatments for existing blocks, like adding a border, changing the background, or tweaking typography. 

When the block is selected, these custom styles will appear in the Styles panel within the editor sidebar, giving content creators easy ways to apply consistent, reusable design patterns. You can create as many custom block styles as you’d like.

Below you’ll find an example of the Image block. The Styles panel below shows four styles: Default, Rounded, Purple Border, and Red Border (which is the selected style showing in the editor).

We’ll walk through six ways to add custom block styles in WordPress, from simple theme edits to more advanced methods.

Method 1: add a block style via a JSON file (/styles folder) 

• Best for: Theme developers
• Where you would typically use it: Commonly in themes 
• Version requirements: WordPress 6.6 or higher with theme.json v3 

For theme developers, the most streamlined way to add custom block styles to a theme is to add a new file to the /styles folder. 

This method requires upgrading the theme.json schema to v3, which is only available in WordPress 6.6 and above. As a theme developer, you would either require your users to install the Gutenberg plugin or update the minimum requirement for your theme to WordPress 6.6 to ensure everything works as intended.

Say we wanted to add a blue border style called image-blue-border.json.

{
	"$schema": "https://schemas.wp.org/trunk/theme.json",
	"version": 3,
	"title": "Blue Border",
	"slug": "blue-border",
	"blockTypes": [ "core/image" ],
	"styles": {
            "border": {
                    "color": "#00f9ff",
                    "style": "solid",
                    "width": "4px",
                    "radius": "15px"
                },
			"shadow": "var(--wp--preset--shadow--natural)"
		}
}

With theme.json v3, the metadata information for a block’s style is automatically registered within the WP_Block_Styles_Registry:

• The title is the same as the label from the register_block_style code.
• The slug is similar to the name property of the register_block_style function.
• The blockTypes property can be used to assign a style to a particular block or series of blocks.

The code "shadow": "var(--wp--preset--shadow--natural)" refers to the preset “Natural” shadow style in WordPress. By using a preset variable, your block will automatically reflect any global style changes, keeping your design consistent across themes and updates.

Once you save your code changes:

• Your new style is added to the Styles panel for that particular block. 
• The block editor shows a preview when you hover over the button.
• The Styles engine attaches the CSS class is-blue-border to the block in the editor and on the frontend.
• When opening the Global Styles via Styles → Blocks → Image, the styles can be changed by the user for the whole site. 

To organize your block style code, you can create a subfolder in the styles folder called /blocks and keep them all together. A few theme developers found they could reduce the length of their functions.php file considerably by implementing subfolders instead.

Method 2: register block style in PHP and style it via theme.json

• Best for: Theme developers
• Where you would typically use it: In the theme.json file and in functions.php
• Version requirements: WordPress 6.6 or higher with theme.json v3 

To add a custom block style using this method, you’ll need to register the style and add your stylings in the theme.json file.

Register block style 

In your functions.php file, use the register_block_style() function to set the two mandatory arguments (additional optional arguments are covered below): 

• name: The identifier of the style used to compute a CSS class.
• label: A human-readable label for the style.

Once set, you can add them to the init hook in your theme. 

function my_style_red(){

   register_block_style(
       'core/image',
       array(
           'name'  => 'red-border',
           'label' => __( 'Red Border', 'my-theme' )
       )
   );
}
add_action( 'init', 'my_style_red' );

Add styling to theme.json

We’ll add some styling for the red-border variation to the theme.json file. It’s placed within the styles.blocks.core/image section, as we’re making changes to the Image block.

"styles": {
       "blocks": {
           "core/image":{
               "variations": {
                   "red-border":{
                       "border": {
                               "color":"#cf2e2e",
                               "style": "solid",
                               "width": "4px",
                               "radius":"15px"
                       }
                   }
               }
           },

These two code snippets work together because the name used in the register_block_style() function in your functions.php file and the variations’ name arguments in your theme.json file are identical. 

This method produces the same editor and frontend results as using a JSON file in the /styles folder:

• The style will be visible in the editor and on the frontend. 
• It is also available via the Editor → Styles → Blocks → Image section for global customization.

If the styles available in theme.json aren’t enough, you have a few options: 

• You can use the CSS property in JSON notation. The WordPress.org per-block CSS with theme.json article provides a good summary of how to do this. 
• You can use any of the methods below and add them to your functions.php file. 
• You can register the block style via register_block_style() and include the CSS in your theme’s overall style.css file, referencing the block and style class name. That being said, this is not recommended as these styles will always load, even if the block isn’t in use. A bug is also preventing the styles from loading on the frontend.
• You can use block stylesheets to only load the styles when the block is used, as outlined in the WordPress Theme handbook tutorial on block stylesheets. 

Method 3: add a block style with register_block_style() (PHP)

The register_block_style() function has three additional and optional parameters. They are listed on the documentation page for the WP_Block_Styles_Registry class that handles the registration and management of block styles.

• style_data: A theme.json-like object used to generate CSS.
• inline_style: Inline CSS code that registers the CSS class required for the style.
• style_handle: The handle of a previously registered style to enqueue alongside the block style.

See the documentation for register_block_style() for more information.

3a. Use the style_data parameter

• Best for: Plugin developers and theme developers
• Where you would typically use it: In plugin files or functions.php 
• Version requirements: WordPress 6.6 or higher

Although block styles have been a fundamental way that WordPress works since 5.0, the style_data parameter was added in WordPress 6.6. 

This method for defining block styles uses “a theme.json-like object,” meaning an array of nested styles in a format that very closely resembles the styles section of the theme.json file. At the root level, the styles are applied to the block(s) that you define with the block_name array. 

If you are familiar with theme.json structure, you can use this method to add additional styles. This method enables those styles in Editor → Styles → Blocks and users can make changes there. 

As you can see, the array notation for this parameter follows JSON closely. 

The theme.json reads:

"border": {
             "color":"#cf2e2e",
             "style": "solid",
             "width": "4px",
             "radius":"15px"
          }

The array in PHP reads:

array(
       'border' => array(
       'color' => '#f5bc42',
       'style' => 'solid',
       'width' => '4px',
       'radius' => '15px'
      ),

To further demonstrate this idea, this function adds an orange border with a box shadow using the “sharp” shadow style preset. 

function my_orange_border() {

   register_block_style(
       array( 'core/image' ),
       array(
           'name'         => 'orange-border',
           'label'        => __( 'Orange Border', 'pauli' ),
           'style_data'=> array(
                           'border' => array(
                           'color' => '#f5bc42',
                            'style' => 'solid',
                            'width' => '4px',
                            'radius' => '15px'
                           ),
                       'shadow' => array(
                           'var(--wp--preset--shadow--sharp)'
                           )
                       )

           )
   );
};

add_action( 'init', 'my_orange_border' );

Of the three parameters, only the style_data information will be added to the global style section in the site editor and can be edited by the site owner. The other two add the styles to the Styles panel, and there is no edit path within the UI.

3b. Use the inline_style parameter

• Best for: Plugin developers and theme developers
• Where you would typically use it: In the main plugin PHP file or functions.php
• Version requirements: WordPress 5 or higher

The value for the inline_style parameter is a combination of the CSS selector and the CSS properties.

function my_double_frame_styles() {
   register_block_style(
       'core/image',
       array(
           'name'         => 'double-frame',
           'label'        => __( 'Double-Frame', 'pauli' ),
           'inline_style' => '.wp-block-image.is-style-double-frame
                               img { border: 10px ridge lightgreen; }'
       )
   );
}
add_action( 'init', 'my_double_frame_styles' );

The class name follows standard block editor naming conventions. Each core block’s class name contains the prefix wp-block + the block name, like image. It is then followed by the block style prefix is-style and the registered style slug, like double-frame.

The class name .wp-block-image.is-style-double-frame is followed by the style that you want to attach to the block. Here you see the CSS values for the border property for the image element (img). It adds a ridged, light green 1px border. 

You can have quite a few CSS properties combined in the inline_style parameter for the function, but it may become hard to read and manage.

3c. Use the style_handle parameter

• Best for: Plugin developers and theme developers
• Where you would typically use it: In plugin files or functions.php
• Version requirements: WordPress 5 or higher

For more elaborate styles, consider placing the CSS in a separate file and using wp_enqueue_style() to load it on the frontend and backend. Then use the style_handle parameter in the register_block_style() function. 

Here is some example code using this method to add a purple border style.

function my_purple_border_styles() {
   wp_enqueue_style(
       'my-image-block-style',
       plugin_dir_url(__FILE__) . '/my-purple-border.css',
       array( 'wp-edit-blocks' ),
       '1.0'
   );
 
   register_block_style(
       'core/image',
       array(
           'name'         => 'purple-border',
           'label'        => __( 'Purple Border, slightly rounded', 'pauli' ),
           'style_handle' => 'my-image-block-style'
       )
   );
}

And here is the accompanying my-purple-border.css file, which is placed into the plugin’s root folder.

.is-style-purple-border img {
   border: 6px solid purple;
   border-radius: 15px;
   box-shadow: 10px 5px 5px #e090fc;
};

The image block now has a purple border with a pinkish shadow style. 

Note: There is also a bug report open about the stylesheet loading even when the block styles aren’t used. Because of this, it’s not recommended for complex CSS.

Method 4: register block styles using JavaScript + CSS

• Best for: Plugin developers and theme developers
• Where you would typically use it: In a separate *.js file, enqueued in a plugin file, or in functions.php
• Version requirements: WordPress 5 or higher

Compared to using the separate JSON file to add a block style variation, using JavaScript is more elaborate. It has three parts: 

• PHP: To enqueue the necessary files
• JavaScript: To register the block style
• CSS: To style the block

The wp_enqueue_script() function adds JavaScript files to a webpage. It’s not JavaScript itself, but rather a WordPress PHP function that’s often used in WordPress theme or plugin development. For this example, we can store the .js file in the theme’s /js/ subdirectory and name it curate-core.js. 

The example code loads our custom curate-core.js file after the necessary WordPress block editor scripts. It’s added to the bottom of the page for better performance and is hooked into enqueue_block_editor_assets so it only loads in the editor. 

This code example goes into the theme’s functions.php file or your plugin’s *.php file. 

function pauli_block_editor_scripts() {
       wp_enqueue_script(
           'pauli-editor',
           get_theme_file_uri( '/js/curate-core.js' ),
           array( 'wp-blocks', 'wp-dom' ),
           wp_get_theme()->get( 'Version' ), true
       );
       }
      
add_action( 'enqueue_block_editor_assets', 'pauli_block_editor_scripts' );

This code should go in the JavaScript file curate-core.js:

wp.domReady( function() {
   
   wp.blocks.registerBlockStyle(
       'core/image', {
           name: 'black-border',
           label: 'Black Border',
       }
   );

} );

You can then add our block styles to your theme’s style.css file using the automatically added class name, is-style-black-border.

.is-style-black-border img {
   border: 15px ridge black;
}

Due to a bug, you need to add the style.css to the frontend. It doesn’t seem to be automatically loaded. You use wp_enqueue_style() and then use the hook wp_enqueue_scripts.

Then you’d add the following to your functions.php or plugin file:

function enqueue_theme_styles() {
   wp_enqueue_style(
       'my-theme-styles',
       get_stylesheet_uri(), // This gets your style.css
       array(),
       wp_get_theme()->get( 'Version' )
   );
}
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'enqueue_theme_styles' );

You also need to add style.css to the block editor so your users can see how the block style looks when they are working on the post or page. 

//add style.css to editor
function add_theme_editor_styles() {
   add_editor_style( 'style.css' );
}
add_action( 'after_setup_theme', 'add_theme_editor_styles' );

Optional: removing unwanted core block styles

Now that you know how to add block styles to your theme or your plugin, you might also want to remove some additional block styles that come with the block editor out of the box.

There are two functions you’ll need to address: 

• The PHP function unregister_block_style()
• The JavaScript function unregisterBlockStyle()

Block styles can only be unregistered in the same coding language used to register them. All core blocks are registered with JavaScript. 

The example code below removes the additional block style for the image block called rounded.

wp.domReady( function() {
   wp.blocks.unregisterBlockStyle( 'core/image', [ 'rounded' ] );
} );

For more ways to modify the block editor, read 15 ways to curate the WordPress editing experience.

Summary: custom block styles at a glance

You now know the six ways to register block styles for the WordPress block editor. Here’s a quick recap of what we covered:

Block Style Added in Example Code	Language	Theme/Plugin	Parameter	File	Global Styles
Red	PHP+	Theme		theme.json	yes
Blue	JSON	Theme		image-blue-border.json	yes
Orange	PHP	Theme/Plugin	style_data		yes
Purple	PHP	Theme/Plugin	style_handle	.css	no
Double Frame	PHP	Theme/Plugin	inline_style		no
Black	JS	Theme/Plugin		.js + .css + .php	no

The easiest method is to add a JSON file to the /styles folder using the theme.json format. Another option uses minimal PHP in your functions.php file alongside your theme.json configuration. Both approaches add block styles to the Styles panel in the editor, where users can apply and customize them.

Plugin developers can use the style_data parameter to achieve similar results, including integration with Global Styles.

Other plugin-based methods—using inline_style, style_handle, or JavaScript—don’t support Global Styles editing, but still make the styles selectable in the editor.

Keep in mind that the first three methods (JSON file, theme.json with PHP, and style_data) require WordPress 6.6 or higher. To support older WordPress versions, you’ll need to use one of the other available approaches.

Resources to learn more

Want to learn even more about block styles and block variations? Here are some resources to check out: 

YouTube

• Builder Basics: Block Styles vs. Block Variations

Make.WordPress Dev Note

• Section styles coming to WordPress 6.6

WordPress Developer Blog

• Styling sections, nested elements, and more with Block Style Variations in WordPress 6.6
• Leveraging theme.json and per-block styles for more performant themes
• Per-block CSS with theme.json
• Beyond block styles, part 1: using the WordPress scripts package with themes
• Beyond block styles, part 2: building a custom style for the Separator block
• Beyond block styles, part 3: building custom design tools

Block Editor Handbook

• Block Styles

Themes Handbook 

• Block Style Variations

In this guide, we’ll explain what parked domains are, how to recognize them, and what to do if the domain you want is already parked.

What is a parked domain?

A “parked” domain may mean different things, depending on where you register your domains. It might be a domain:

• That displays a “coming soon” page but doesn’t yet host a functional site. WordPress.com enables a “coming soon” page by default for all domains purchased through our domain suggestion tool until you launch your site.
• Owned by an investor or broker, often monetized with ads or listed for sale, especially if it receives traffic due to its name or previous usage.
• That has expired or been canceled and is pending deletion, so it shows a static page or monetized links.

In contrast, buying a domain to reserve it for future use, such as for a project that’s still in development, isn’t typically considered domain parking. As long as you continue renewing your registration, you own the domain, even if you aren’t using it yet.

Telltale signs of a parked domain

Looking at a website and wondering if it’s parked? Here’s what to look for:

• A generic, templatized landing page: Parked domains display a cookie-cutter design without much customization. They also typically have placeholder content. 
• Lack of navigation: These sites don’t have menus or sitemaps to show that they’re functional. You’ll find a single landing page with nowhere else to go.
• Broker or registrar branding: You’ll see logos or footer text from domain registrars. You may also see display banners like “This domain is for sale” and a domain broker’s contact information in case you’re interested in purchasing it. Here’s an example:

• Page filled with ads and links: You might see an ad-heavy page showing links related to the domain’s keywords. This is a tactic for generating passive income through unused, parked domains.

How to obtain a parked domain

What if the domain you want is already parked? Here are a few alternatives you can try:

Contact the owner with an inquiry 

The first order of business when you want to buy a parked domain is to contact the owner.

Most parked domains include the owner’s contact information if they’re willing to sell.

Send a transparent, professional inquiry showing interest in purchasing the domain. Avoid mentioning how much you can pay to keep some space for negotiations. 

Make sure you explain how you plan to use the domain. Some owners care more about the future of their domains beyond just the sale price.

Tip: For domains that clearly use a trademark you own, you can claim the domain from the current owner through a process called UDRP.

Make an offer through a broker 

If direct contact with the owner fails, reach out to a domain broker to negotiate a deal on your behalf. 

By working with a broker, an intermediary can use their hands-on experience to help negotiate a favorable deal. While brokers charge a percentage of the final sale price or a flat fee, their negotiation tactics might give you a significantly lower acquisition cost.

Look for variations of the domain

If all efforts fail and your first-choice domain is out of reach, you can consider some of these variations:

• Extensions/TLDs: Explore different extensions instead of the one you originally wanted—we have domains ending in everything from .com, .net, and .blog to .dog and .christmas. 
• Prefixes/suffixes: Add a relevant word before or after your core term to create a new variation.
• Hyphens: Add hyphens between words to create a new domain. However, avoid adding too many hyphens, as they can confuse users when typing and be difficult to memorize.

Monitor the domain

If all else fails, you may want to use a domain monitoring service to track your desired domain and get notified if it expires or becomes available for purchase. However, remember that this approach requires patience and does not guarantee success.

Turn domains into opportunities 

Whether you’re exploring parked domains or looking for the perfect name to launch your next idea, domains open the door to future opportunities—creative, professional, and everything in between.

Ready to purchase a domain? Check out WordPress.com’s domain suggestion tool to find all our available domains. We have over 350 available TLDs, and they average just $13 per year.

When you’re ready to launch a website, WordPress.com makes it easy to turn your domain into a fast, secure, and fully customizable website.

In this post, we’ll break down what meta descriptions are, why they matter, and how to write descriptions that actually get clicks.

1. What are meta descriptions?
2. How do meta descriptions impact SEO?
3. What happens if pages are missing meta descriptions?
4. Do meta descriptions need to be unique?
5. How long should meta descriptions be?
6. Using tools to preview your meta descriptions
7. Some simple (and overlooked) tips for writing meta descriptions
   1. Keep your title tag in mind
   2. Get aligned with search intent
   3. Keep voice search in mind
   4. Leverage emotional sentiment
   5. Include calls to action
8. Updating meta descriptions on WordPress websites
   1. Jetpack
   2. Other plugins
9. Go optimize your meta descriptions

What are meta descriptions?

A meta description is a line of text in web pages that summarizes their contents. Have you ever seen the summaries underneath the blue links on search results pages? Those are meta descriptions. Here is an example direct from Google:

Meta descriptions may also appear in link previews on social media posts, text messages, and chat apps. When written as HTML, they are wrapped in a <meta> tag within the <head> section of your page.

<meta name="description" content="INSERT YOUR META DESCRIPTION HERE" />

You can also see the meta description on any web page by right-clicking and selecting View Page Source. Here is an example from the entertainment website Polygon:

Meta descriptions are closely related to title tags, which appear as the actual blue links in search results. Together, they tell search engines and users what your site’s pages (from your homepage to individual blog posts and pages) are about.

How do meta descriptions impact SEO?

Unlike title tags, meta descriptions do not directly influence search engine rankings. However, they do affect how your pages appear in search results and tell users why they should click.

Reddit user Neither-Emu7933 summarized this concept well:

Think of your meta description as a brief pitch—it won’t directly boost your content rankings, but it can help it win the click. Paired with a strong title tag, it’s your best chance to stand out in a crowded search result.

What happens if pages are missing meta descriptions?

If a page is missing a meta description, the short answer is that nothing bad is likely to happen. But the long answer is a bit more nuanced. Meta descriptions can influence click-through rates, so leaving them out means missing an opportunity to shape how your content appears in search results.

If the meta description tag is missing, then Google will use other text from the page to generate its own snippet. Some people prefer to let Google handle meta descriptions instead of writing one manually. In fact, former Googler Matt Cutts once said he doesn’t include meta descriptions on all of his blog posts: 

So should you leave meta descriptions blank? Google’s own AI says that it may be risky:

Leaving meta descriptions blank can result in inaccurate page descriptions and, therefore, less search traffic.

Do meta descriptions need to be unique?

Duplicative meta descriptions are confusing for search engines and unhelpful for users, so the meta descriptions across your website should all be unique.

If your site or blog has many posts and pages that are missing meta descriptions, writing unique meta descriptions for each one could take a long time. In this instance, we recommend following Matt Cutts’ timeless advice from the video we shared earlier in this post:

• Include meta descriptions on your most important pages.
• Make sure your meta descriptions are unique.
• Leave the rest of your meta descriptions blank.

Once you’ve done that, make it a habit to include meta descriptions on new pages and posts. This is a compromise between time-consuming manual effort and setting yourself up for future success.

How long should meta descriptions be?

The traditional advice is that meta descriptions should be 150 characters or less. This will ensure search engines don’t cut them off. However, this isn’t the whole story.

Google measures meta description length in pixels rather than characters. Depending on the specific letters, words, and numbers in your meta description, the total maximum length may be more or less than 150 characters. 

Sometimes Google will overwrite the meta description you wrote and use text from the page itself to create a new meta description. Generally, Google will do this if your meta description is too short, or if it thinks it can create an alternative that’s more useful for the reader.

In these instances, the meta description that users see may be more than 300 characters. This makes it difficult to confidently say how long they should be. 

So what should you do? As a best practice, stick with the 150-character guideline (but be aware that this isn’t a firm rule). 

Using tools to preview your meta descriptions

It’s nice to actually see how meta descriptions will appear in search results before you publish a page. Fortunately, there are plenty of free tools you can use to preview them. Here are a few:

• Portent’s Google SERP Preview Tool
• Spotibo Google Search Results Preview Tool
• To The Web Title Tag and Meta Description Tester

Some simple (and overlooked) tips for writing meta descriptions

Ready to get serious about writing meta tags? They aren’t difficult to write, but there are some tips and general best practices you can follow to make sure you get them right.

Keep your title tag in mind

Search engine users will see your meta descriptions underneath your title tags. Keep this in mind when writing them, and ensure they read well together and accurately represent your content.

Need help writing title tags too? Here are some tips for writing excellent title tags to boost your search traffic. 

Get aligned with search intent

If you’ve never heard the term “search intent,” it means understanding what a user is trying to do when they search for a specific keyword. There are a few different types of search intent:

• Navigational intent means the user is looking for a specific website or page.
• Informational intent applies when someone seeks an answer to a question or wants to learn more about a topic.
• Commercial intent involves researching products or services before making a decision.
• Transactional intent indicates the user is ready to buy a product or service.

When writing meta descriptions, ask yourself what someone looking for that specific page is trying to do, and promise them that the page will provide precisely what they are looking for.

Keep voice search in mind

When crafting meta descriptions, remember voice search and visitors who use screen readers. 

Try reading your meta description out loud to see how it sounds. If something sounds clunky or awkward, consider rewriting it to ensure that it’s accessible to all.

Leverage emotional sentiment

Writing a meta description is like writing any other copy or content on your site. 

Since emotional language drives action, here are 801 power words that can help make your meta description copy more motivating. 

Include calls to action

Meta descriptions are essentially ads for web pages. They should motivate the reader to click through to your site (instead of a different search result). If you’ve never written a call-to-action before, start with this guide from Barefoot Writer.

Updating meta descriptions on WordPress websites

All of the advice we’ve shared so far applies no matter which CMS or website builder you choose. But this is the WordPress.com blog; if you’re here, you probably want to know how to implement better meta descriptions on your own WordPress site.

Here are a few options for updating your meta descriptions:

Jetpack

Every WordPress.com website comes with Jetpack, which enables tons of awesome features, and sites on the Business plan and above can use Jetpack’s SEO features to edit title tags and meta descriptions. 

If your site is hosted with a different provider, you can use Jetpack’s SEO tools too.

Other plugins

There are several popular WordPress SEO plugins that enable title tag and meta description editing (and a whole lot more). Here are three options:

• Yoast
• All in One SEO (AIOSEO)
• Rank Math SEO

WordPress.com users can use third-party plugins on the Business plan and above.

Go optimize your meta descriptions

If you take anything away from this article, it should be this: meta descriptions may be short, but they can influence how often your pages appear and get clicked in search results. 

Now you know how to write ones that work, so give your pages the click-worthy summaries they deserve. Want to keep sharpening your SEO skills? Check out our guide to optimizing your WordPress.com site for search.

But then…reality sets in. Suddenly, you are doing all the work. You’re managing updates, handling backups, fixing glitches, and wondering why you never seem to have time for anything else. 

Like any good relationship, it’s best when both sides contribute. That’s where managed WordPress hosting comes in. It steps up and says, “I got this.” It handles the technical chores, like updates, security, and backups, so you don’t have to. Finally, a little give-and-take!

Is managed hosting right for you? Is this the commitment you need? Keep reading to find out.

1. What is managed WordPress hosting?
2. Managed WordPress hosting benefits
3. Are there any drawbacks?
4. Is managed WordPress hosting right for you?
5. How to compare managed WordPress hosting providers
6. Choose a hosting partner you can count on

What is managed WordPress hosting?

A “managed” host refers to your hosting provider playing an active role in operating your site by handling technical tasks such as server optimization, security, performance, and maintenance.

Unlike other forms of hosting where you simply rent space and handle everything yourself, managed hosting handles these critical tasks for you so you can focus on growing your site.

What do managed hosting plans include?

With managed WordPress hosting, you typically get:

• Optimized server environments.
• Automatic software updates.
• Managed security, like automated backups and malware scanning.
• WordPress-specific speed optimization and other performance features.
• Integrated tools for WordPress developers.
• Knowledgeable support.

Providers also frequently offer additional features like staging sites and free migrations.

Managed WordPress hosting benefits

There are many upsides to managed hosting, and here are some of the most impactful benefits for site owners:

1. Performance and optimization

It starts with the environment where your website lives. 

With traditional hosting, everyone gets the same generic setup. Managed WordPress hosting provides an environment (hardware and server technology like PHP) specifically optimized for running WordPress.

This tailored setup means your server is configured to run WordPress as smoothly and efficiently as possible, resulting in faster loading times, better SEO, and a better experience for your visitors.

In addition to optimized infrastructure, managed hosting includes built-in performance features like caching, content delivery networks (CDNs), image optimization, and resource scaling designed to keep your site fast and stable, even as traffic grows.

2. Enhanced security

Security is a major concern for any website owner. A hacked or offline site can quickly turn into a major headache and a disruption you don’t want to deal with.

With traditional hosting, you’re responsible for securing your site yourself. In contrast, managed hosting providers take an active role in protecting your site through multiple layers of defense, including:

• Malware protection: Managed hosts scan your site for malicious software, viruses, and other threats that could harm your visitors or damage your site. Many also include brute force login protection to block hackers from guessing their way into your admin dashboard.
• Data protection: Encryption and data security are critical. Managed hosts typically provide SSL certificates by default to safeguard sensitive information like passwords and payment details. Many also include secure spam filtering to protect comment sections from unwanted content.
• Threat prevention: Features like web application firewalls (WAFs) and DDoS protection help block malicious traffic before it even reaches your site. Firewalls screen for dangerous activity, while DDoS mitigation ensures your site stays online even during traffic attacks.
• Backups and recovery: If something goes wrong, automatic daily backups allow you to quickly restore your site to a working version, minimizing downtime and loss of data.

Security is made up of many layers of protection, and it’s important to be aware that there’s only so much even a managed hosting provider can do to keep your WordPress site safe. 

In fact, a lot of website security is user-dependent. Things like selecting a strong password and limiting access to necessary persons only go a long way in keeping your site safe.

3. Expert support

One of the main benefits of choosing a hosting provider specialized in WordPress is support.

Since traditional providers mainly rent out web space that you can use to run any content management system or web application, their support staff need extensive knowledge but may lack application-specific depth because they serve many customers with very different needs.

Managed WordPress hosting providers focus only on working with one system—WordPress. 

4. Scalability

As your site grows, you may need a bigger hosting plan or migrate to a new server.

Managed hosting often automatically scales to handle sudden traffic spikes and long-term growth. Features like redundancy, CDNs, and firewalls keep your site fast and online.

Instead of managing the bare minimum to keep your site running, managed hosting gives you an environment built to help your website grow and succeed.

Are there any drawbacks?

Of course, managed WordPress hosting comes with downsides.

1. Cost

Managed hosting tends to be pricier than other types of hosting, especially shared hosting. That’s no surprise considering the extra features and service it offers. 

That said, it’s often absolutely worth the additional cost because you’re exchanging money for something more valuable: your time.

With managed hosting, you spend less time on routine tasks so you can spend more on those things that move the needle in the success of your website. 

Wouldn’t you rather focus on growing your site and connecting with your audience, instead of handling routine maintenance?

lus, managed hosting helps you avoid a lot of time-consuming problems. With security and backups in place, you’re less likely to run into an emergency, and even if you have an issue, you have knowledgeable support to turn to.

With all that time saved, managed hosting is actually often more cost-effective, especially for high-traffic blogs or ecommerce websites.

2. Restrictions and less control

Since a managed hosting provider handles much of your site’s infrastructure, you have less freedom to customize certain parts.

Managed WordPress hosts may restrict themes or plugins that duplicate built-in features to prevent conflicts and maintain performance.

While these restrictions might frustrate advanced users or developers who want more direct server control, they’re a major advantage for less technical users. You don’t have to worry about configuring complex optimizations yourself, as your hosting provider takes care of it for you.

Is managed WordPress hosting right for you?

Choosing the right hosting comes down to your website’s needs and your preferences.

Ask yourself:

• How much traffic does my site get today? 
• Am I expecting my site to grow in the future?
• How comfortable am I managing technical tasks like updates, backups, and security?
• Do I want to spend time on server management or focus on creating content, growing traffic, and building my audience?
• How important is guaranteed uptime, fast support, and strong security for my site?
• What’s my budget, and am I ready to invest in hosting that saves me time and risk?

If you’re running a high-traffic blog, an ecommerce store, or client sites, or if your website handles sensitive data, managed hosting is likely a smart investment. It’s also a great fit if you simply prefer to focus on your content or business rather than worrying about technical maintenance.

In short: If your website is mission-critical, growing fast, or your time is better spent elsewhere, managed WordPress hosting can give you the performance, protection, and peace of mind you need.

How to compare managed WordPress hosting providers

Finally, if you’ve decided on managed hosting, how do you choose a provider?

Key features to look out for

The features managed hosting providers typically offer are often similar, at least on the surface. But it’s worth taking a closer look, especially at the details of standard features and additional services included in hosting plans.

Here’s a short checklist to use when evaluating different hosting providers:

• Security features: What’s included with your hosting cost? What’s considered an “add-on?”
• Performance improvements: Optimized hardware and software are a given, but what about a CDN and other optimizations?
• Redundancy: Are there additional data centers in case one fails to guarantee the uptime of your website?
• Support quality: A good way to judge support quality is to run a test. Contact support with a question and see how well they can help you. Look at their other support resources too.
• Metered/unmetered traffic: Many managed hosting providers have bandwidth or traffic restrictions; ensure you understand these limits so you don’t end up paying more than expected.
• Developer features: Check for access to plugins, themes, staging sites, the ability to use custom code, SSH, and WP-CLI if you need them.
• Pricing: Are there extra costs or hidden fees? Check renewal rates, plan upgrades, and money-back guarantees.

Our recommendation for a managed WordPress host

There are many managed hosting providers out there, but we think WordPress.com is your best choice for a few reasons: 

WordPress.com is a purely managed WordPress hosting provider. Every plan comes with automatic software and PHP updates, 99.999% uptime, and unmetered bandwidth and traffic. These features keep your site running smoothly, regardless of how many people visit your site.

Security is a top priority to us, and our approach goes beyond automated scans. 

Jetpack Scan, our security tool enabled on all WordPress.com sites, checks your plugins, themes, uploads, and content automatically each day. If a risk is detected, our security team manually reviews the alert to determine its severity, ensuring false positives don’t disrupt your site while real threats are swiftly addressed.

Our automated monitoring and expert manual reviews keep your site secure with proactive, hands-on protection. Additionally, all paid plans come with a free domain for the first year (with free domain privacy) and 24/7 expert support. On plugin-enabled plans, you also get benefits like real-time backups and one-click restore, a web application firewall, and developer features.

Choose a hosting partner you can count on

Every great relationship is built on trust and balance, and your hosting should be no different. If you prefer full control, managed WordPress hosting might not be your perfect match.

But if you want reliability, security, and real support, managed hosting is worth the commitment. Because in the end, a good hosting partner—like a good relationship—should make your life easier, not harder.

Ready to make your hosting life easier? 

But what exactly is web hosting, and how do you choose the right provider for your needs? In this post, we’ll break down what web hosting is, what web hosting services do, and the infrastructure that keeps your site up and available.

How web hosting works

If you’ve ever encountered data storage issues on your phone or computer, you’re probably aware that digital storage requires physical storage space. Data can be stored directly on your device or an external hard drive, and if you use cloud-based data storage, your data is still stored in the real world in a server center owned by your provider.

To make your website accessible to visitors, your site’s data, including text, photos, and styling, must be stored on a server—a computer built to store, manage, and share data across the internet.

When someone types in your domain, their browser contacts your server, which responds by sending back the files needed to display your website.

Is a domain name the same as web hosting?

Many people don’t understand the difference between domains and web hosting, likely because both domains and web hosting are often referred to as a website’s “home” on the web. However, these are two completely separate (and necessary!) components required to get a website online. 

Your unique domain name (like yourgroovydomain.com) is what someone needs to type into their browser to get to your website. But without web hosting, your domain name wouldn’t have any website content to display. Think of your domain as the address and your hosting as the house where everything lives.

WordPress.com is a one-stop shop for web hosting and domain names, so you can get both when you sign up with us. You can browse available domain names here.

We dive deeper into the difference between domains and hosting in this guide.

The elements of a web host

Several components interact to deliver your website to users’ computers, including hardware, software, and defined infrastructure. We’ll briefly cover each of these components below. 

Creating web hosting infrastructure

Before anyone can visit your website, your website’s content and design need to be stored on a server. 

There are different ways to set up servers for different types of websites (which we’ll address in more detail below). Servers can be configured to host multiple websites on a single machine, support a large site with specific security needs, or run several virtual servers at once. How your infrastructure is set up can have a big impact on your site’s speed and reliability.

Translating domains through Domain Name Servers (DNS)

When someone types your domain name into their browser, their computer uses the Domain Name System (DNS) to look up the IP address associated with that domain. DNS acts like a translator, converting your human-readable web address into the computer-readable IP address (like 192.0.2.1) needed to find and load your website.

The computer then uses this IP address to determine which server to contact to retrieve your website’s data.

Connecting to servers

Servers must remain online and ready at all times to receive website requests. Once your server receives a secure request for your website, the server processes it and finds the information it needs to send back to the browser.

Authenticating the request

Authentication and authorization systems on your server verify that incoming requests are legitimate and ensure that sensitive data, like your users’ personal information, remains protected.

Using SSL/TLS encryption, your server delivers the site to your visitor’s computer, ensuring that bad actors can’t intercept or replace your site when data is passed between devices. WordPress.com includes a free SSL certificate with every site, helping you protect your visitors’ connections from day one.

Website delivery

If everything is configured properly, your server will quickly deliver your website to your visitors’ screens.

Why you should use a web hosting service

While individuals can buy and manage their own servers for their websites, it requires a lot of technical know-how. 

Before using your server, it must be properly configured for web hosting and secured against threats. Hosting also requires ongoing server maintenance, like installing security patches and software updates and maintaining the physical server and server space.

Even if you have the technical expertise to configure a server, most people mainly outsource (or rent) physical server space from a web hosting company to avoid “downtime,” or time your site is offline. 

If your server goes down—for example, during a power outage or if your server experiences a software error—your website can’t be delivered to visitors. If you’ve ever seen a 404 error when accessing a website, the server may be offline. 

Unlike individually owned servers, hosting providers offer around-the-clock resources for managing and maintaining physical servers, ensuring someone is always available to respond to server issues. Additionally, most server centers have backup safety features, like secondary power supplies and redundancies that help keep your site online. 

When looking for a web hosting provider, you should expect a provider to offer at least 99% uptime to ensure your site is always accessible to visitors. 

Types of web hosting

Not all web hosting providers or server setups are created equal. Below, we’ll briefly explain different web hosting setups and when you might want to use them. 

Want to dig deeper into the different types of web hosting? We cover them in more detail in this guide. 

Shared hosting

Shared hosting is when multiple websites share a single server and resources. Shared hosting is generally a good fit for smaller websites with less traffic, as it is less expensive than a dedicated server. However, if a website on your server experiences a sudden spike in traffic, it could affect your website’s speed. 

Shared hosting providers manage the setup and security features for the whole server, so it’s important to ensure you choose a provider with excellent uptime and security. 

VPS hosting

Virtual private servers (VPS) are the middle ground between shared and dedicated hosting options, both in terms of price and resources. With a VPS, you have a private virtual server environment within a shared server, so you have more control over your setup and don’t risk other sites dipping into your resources. 

VPS hosting requires more technical expertise to set up, as a developer needs to configure the virtual server. 

Dedicated hosting

Dedicated hosting is when you have a whole server’s resources for your website. This is a good option for large enterprise businesses with a lot of traffic or companies with advanced safety needs, like healthcare companies or financial institutions. 

Your server can be configured however you choose for your business, and you will need ongoing support to maintain and update your server. 

Cloud hosting

Cloud hosting is a server setup that stores your website on a distributed network of servers across the globe. While your website is still on shared servers, there is redundancy in case one server experiences downtime or heavy traffic, ensuring your site stays online.

Cloud hosting costs are often lower than dedicated hosting but vary based on your site’s traffic and provider. Many providers charge more as the number of visitors increases.

Read more about the cloud data centers that power our Business and Commerce plans here.

Managed vs unmanaged hosting 

Unmanaged hosting may be cheaper up-front, but requires development and ongoing support for updates and patches. It is generally only recommended for businesses with in-house technical resources who want a more customized server setup.

For most folks looking to get online but not spend all of their time managing their websites, managed web hosting providers like WordPress.com are a great option. 

For example, when you host your site with WordPress.com, your site stays fast, secure, and online. We manage infrastructure, updates, backups, and security so you can focus on your content or growing your business, not upkeep.

Choosing your hosting type

For most websites just getting online, shared hosting is a good option, as it’s a super affordable way to get started. As your site content, traffic, and budgets grow, you can scale your server resources, moving to a faster and more secure setup like VPS, cloud hosting, or a dedicated server. 

One exception is sites with specialized security needs, like websites that collect sensitive user data for healthcare, finance, banking, and ecommerce sites. For added security, a dedicated server may be necessary, even if you don’t have a lot of traffic. 

If you choose to build your site with WordPress, the internet’s most popular CMS software, we recommend looking for managed WordPress hosting. These providers are specifically optimized to support and grow WordPress-powered sites.

Evaluating managed hosting options

Managed hosting means you don’t need deep technical knowledge to get online; however, it’s still important to understand what kind of servers your provider uses, as these factors can affect speed, reliability, and security.

For example, WordPress.com offers shared hosting on lower plans while our Business plan and above are powered by WP Cloud, Automattic’s high-performance cloud infrastructure built specifically for WordPress.

Since your provider will configure your server and features, not all web hosting companies are created equally. When evaluating providers, review their uptime, security features, and speed. 

WordPress.com is a managed WordPress hosting provider offering comprehensive, reliable hosting for everyone on all plans. With WordPress.com, you get high-quality web hosting at an affordable price that’s:

• Reliable: Because WordPress.com hosts websites on thousands of servers across the globe, our uptime is 99.999%. 
• Secure: WordPress.com users also get many built-in security features like SSL certificates, brute-force protection, spam protection, DDoS protection and mitigation, malware detection and removal, and a web application firewall (WAF). Plus, domains registered at WordPress.com come with free domain privacy.
• Fast: Our servers are optimized to host and deliver WordPress websites, and we use a variety of performance-boosting tools, including a content delivery network (CDN) that uses servers closer to your visitors for even faster load times. In third-party speed benchmark tests, we consistently get top scores.
• Unlimited bandwidth and traffic: Many providers will charge additional fees or slow down your site if you suddenly experience a spike in visitors. With WordPress.com, you always pay one price for unmetered bandwidth and traffic, ensuring your site remains fast when you need it most.

Your website deserves a great home

You now know what it takes to get your website online—and why great hosting makes all the difference.

Get fast, secure, and reliable managed hosting with WordPress.com, and launch your site with confidence.

In this guide, we’ll show you better ways to manage all your sites from one place, whether you’re running your own portfolio or looking after client projects.

Who needs to manage multiple WordPress sites?

It’s often professional web developers and agencies who manage multiple sites; however, it’s not uncommon for individual site owners to have more than one website. 

For example, you might have a professional site (such as a freelance portfolio), a blog about a hobby (like food, travel, or fitness), and a site for sharing photos and keeping your friends and family updated on your travels.

Once your friends and family discover you’re good at creating sites, you might even be asked to make a few more for them. 

While launching a new site can be relatively quick and painless, keeping them all running smoothly can be time-consuming: logins for the different accounts need to be remembered, domains will renew at different times, downtime needs monitoring, and plugins require updating.

And if the sites are hosted by different companies, managing multiple accounts, accessing various dashboards, keeping track of billing cycles, and adjusting to different levels of support and customer experience will be necessary. 

All of the above can quickly lead to overwhelm…but there’s a better way.

If you’ve found yourself responsible for more than one website (professional sites or sites you’ve built for fun), this guide will show you how to manage multiple WordPress sites like a pro. 

Benefits of using a tool or service to manage multiple WordPress sites

No matter where your WordPress sites are hosted, you don’t have to juggle them all manually.

There are several benefits to using an effective tool or service for managing multiple sites in one place. You can:

• Access all of the sites you’re managing from one place.
• Manage plugins in bulk without having to log into each site individually.
• Create additional new sites from a central location. 
• Manage other features and functionalities such as backups, user access, security, email accounts, and domain registration centrally.
• Have one point of support for things like billing and licenses.
• Use client-focused features for multi-site management, including discounted pricing, referral commissions, and site migrations. 

As you’ll see, not all options for managing multiple WordPress sites include the above benefits, but some provide more than others. 

How to manage multiple WordPress sites

When it comes to managing multiple WordPress sites, there are a few different options to consider, including:

• WordPress plugins and tools
• WordPress Multisite
• Hosting dashboards and tools
• Automattic for Agencies

WordPress plugins and tools

If you want to centralize your site management without changing hosts, plugins, and third-party tools are an option. Several plugins and tools aim to help you handle your sites more efficiently, including Jetpack Manage, ManageWP, and InfiniteWP.

They’re available at a range of price points, and once set up, they give you the ability to add multiple sites to a centralized management dashboard. 

From there, you can access your sites’ dashboards, update plugins, and manage backups. Some solutions have other helpful features like scanning for malware, monitoring uptime, and generating reports. 

While these solutions can be rich in features, the setup process can be time-consuming and complicated for those new to managing multiple WordPress sites. They can also be relatively expensive if you want access to the most advanced or useful features.

Another drawback of these plugins and tools is that they don’t include hosting for your WordPress site—instead, they’re solutions used alongside your hosting package and domain registration provider. 

So while these solutions can make it easier to manage your sites, you’re adding another service or product to your workflow.

WordPress Multisite

You can also use the native WordPress Multisite feature to manage multiple WordPress sites. 

WordPress Multisite allows you to create a network of WordPress sites, all from a single installation of WordPress. The sites are created and managed from the same WordPress dashboard and share the same file system, database, and server resources.

One benefit of this shared approach is that updates to the WordPress software, themes, and plugins can be carried out once through a single dashboard, rather than on a site-by-site basis. 

However, as all of the sites in the network use the same database, keeping them completely separate is challenging. 

For example, removing a site from the network, such as transferring it to a client or different owner, wouldn’t be straightforward, as its content is stored in the central database. Keeping site database backups separate wouldn’t be possible either. If the database is damaged, all sites in the network could potentially go offline.

Because all sites in a Multisite network share the same server resources, a traffic spike on one site could slow down the others. Not only that, some WordPress plugins aren’t compatible with Multisite, limiting your options for adding new features to your site.

Multisite isn’t available on WordPress.com, and other hosting providers also have restrictions on its use. If you do want to use Multisite to manage your sites, check whether your hosting provider supports it.

Hosting dashboards and tools

It’s worth checking which site management features your web host provides out of the box or as an add-on. 

Sometimes they’ll have a user-friendly dashboard that simplifies managing multiple WordPress sites, plus other tools like bulk plugin management and domain registration.

To take advantage of hosting dashboards and tools, you’ll need to ensure that all your sites are hosted by the same company, usually under the same account. Otherwise, you’ll still be juggling multiple accounts, each with its own ways of doing things. 

Furthermore, if you’re purchasing premium plugins, email, or domain registrations for your WordPress sites, you may need to manage those purchases separately. These “extras” can all add up, increasing the number of providers you have to work with when managing your sites. 

If that seems overwhelming, you’re in luck because WordPress.com provides a feature-rich and easy-to-use solution.

You can quickly start multiple WordPress sites under one WordPress.com account, and you can manage those sites through the WordPress.com Hosting Dashboard—get there by clicking the blue WordPress.com logo in the top-left corner once you log into your WordPress.com account.

As WordPress.com is a managed host, we handle many of the tasks associated with managing a WordPress website for you, such as WordPress software updates, plugin updates, and security. 

You’ll also get a performance-focused hosting environment for each of your sites that uses high-frequency CPUs, global edge caching, a CDN with over 28 international locations, and automatic datacenter failover to keep your site online and accessible. In short, we make sure that your sites are fast, reliable, and secure. 

You also get access to premium WordPress themes at no extra cost, priority 24/7 support from experts, and the ability to install plugins and themes on plugin-enabled WordPress.com plans. 

If you’re not hosted on WordPress.com, you can easily migrate your sites to take advantage of managing your plugin updates, domains, and emails all from this singular, intuitive dashboard. Otherwise, sites hosted at any host can be managed from the dashboard by connecting them using the Jetpack plugin. 

Managing plugin updates with WordPress.com 

The Hosting Dashboard also lets you schedule plugin updates (for sites hosted on our Business plan or above).

The system will check for plugin updates at your chosen time and day of the week. It will then start the installation if any updates are found. You can create multiple schedules and choose which sites and plugins they apply to. 

We always run a health check prior to making any updates, which assesses your site’s stability. As each plugin is updated individually, a health check is performed after each update to see if everything is functioning as expected.

If a health check fails, the system automatically rolls back the update, preventing downtime from breaking changes, and restores the previous version of the plugin. Should that also fail, the WordPress.com support staff will be notified to investigate the issue. 

You can also enable email alerts that notify you after a plugin update.

If you’re managing sites that must be online at specific times, such as during business hours, being able to schedule automatic plugin updates outside of these times is very useful. The fact that updates are automatically rolled back if something goes wrong makes this feature even more valuable. 

Bulk plugin updates

In addition to enabling scheduled plugin updates, you can update plugins across all of your sites through your WordPress.com Hosting Dashboard. 

This feature lets you update, activate, and deactivate the plugins on all of your sites from one central location. 

Domain management

Managing all the domains you’ve registered through WordPress.com in one place is another benefit of using the WordPress.com Hosting Dashboard. 

WordPress.com is a domain registrar, and thanks to this, we have an intuitive domains area within the Hosting Dashboard where you can purchase, manage, and migrate all of your domains in the same place where you’re managing your sites.

Thanks to this, you have one less service to work with for managing the essential components of your website. 

Email accounts

WordPress.com also offers an email service that you can manage independently for each of your sites through the Hosting Dashboard. 

In addition to managing the email service through the same account, you can also add a custom, branded email address to your domain.

Automattic for Agencies 

While the WordPress.com Hosting Dashboard is great for managing multiple sites,  Automattic for Agencies is an option for agencies that offers even more tools and features. 

Signing up for the free program gives you access to various benefits to help you and your team manage your agency’s sites more efficiently. 

Whether WordPress.com hosts those sites or not, you can manage them through the Automattic for Agencies dashboard. 

You can view key information directly from the dashboard, including WordPress and PHP versions and statuses for each of your sites. 

You can also check the Jetpack VaultPress Backup and Scan statuses for your sites and access those tools directly from the dashboard. Activity logs for each site and detailed stats and uptime information can be found here, too. 

If you want to move client sites to the platform, Automattic for Agencies provides free migrations. You can also earn money when migrating sites from specific hosts, with outstanding hosting fees covered until the contract with that host expires. 

Another benefit is the ability to generate income by referring Automattic products and services (like WordPress.com hosting) to their clients. Buying products in bulk from the Marketplace and reselling them to clients is another way to earn money through the program. 

For example, when recommending WordPress.com hosting to your clients, you can receive a 20% revenue share on the sale of hosting subscriptions for new sites (and renewals of those subscriptions). There are similar opportunities for recommending Jetpack products and WooCommerce-owned extensions. 

Another notable feature is the ability to build a cart of products to recommend to a client. The cart could include a hosting plan, premium plugins, and other Automattic products tailored to the client’s project. The cart of items would be packaged into a single, comprehensive invoice for the client, streamlining the payment experience. 

Eligible agencies can also join the partner directory referral program that’s used across all Automattic brands, helping them to land more clients.

Automattic for Agencies is worth considering if you want to reduce the admin involved in managing multiple client sites while getting access to many agency-focused features to make your life easier.

Ready to manage your sites more efficiently?

Managing multiple WordPress sites doesn’t have to mean juggling countless logins, services, and plugins.

Whether you need an all-in-one solution like WordPress.com’s Hosting Dashboard or more advanced tools and revenue opportunities through Automattic for Agencies, you’ve got powerful options.

The right setup lets you spend less time on maintenance and more time building, growing, and launching new sites.

Design is often the first thing people notice when they land on your blog, and it often shapes their decision to stay, scroll, or bounce. 

The more thought you put into designing your blog, the more effortless it is for readers to consume your content, trust your brand, and return for more. 

In this guide, we’ll decode everything it takes to design a stellar blog—from core principles and must-have design elements to our best practices. We’ll also dissect real-world examples from Spotify, Qualtrics, and other popular brands to inspire your design strategy. 

1. Why does blog design matter?
2. Key principles to make smart design choices 
3. Seven essential elements to include in your blog design
4. How to design a blog (five best practices)
5. Breaking down four great blog design examples
6. Over to you: you’re all set to design your blog 

Why does blog design matter?

In an attention economy, good design gives your blog a clear advantage. It can tackle countless distractions and information overload to:

• Win audience trust: First impressions happen fast. A thoughtfully crafted design signals credibility even before people read a word on your blog. When readers see the time, effort, and care put into design, they subconsciously trust your expertise.
• Improve reader experience: Good design makes the reading experience completely effortless. White space, font choices, paragraph spacing, and content hierarchy—all these elements (and more) make it easy for people to consume information. 
• Reinforce your brand: Your blog design should be an extension of your brand. Use your visual language to make memorable designs truly unique to your brand. These designs can create mental bookmarks for readers and improve recall value.
• Give you a competitive edge: Design can be a big differentiator. At a time when almost every business has a blog, readers would gravitate toward your blog if you respect their time and offer unique value with distinctive layouts, custom illustrations, and easy-to-navigate pages.

Simply put, good design allows readers to navigate your blog easily and trust your brand. Let’s understand some foundational principles to guide your design decisions. 

Further reading: Read why we redesigned our blog and what you can learn from our experience.

Key principles to make smart design choices 

Good blog design is more than just aesthetics. You have to deliver a seamless reading experience that helps people find insights and solve their problems. 

Follow these four principles to shape your design decisions and create such an experience. 

Readability 

Readability directly impacts how long people stay on your blog and whether they understand your content. 

Poor readability—from bad font choices, low contrast, and cramped layouts—can create a jarring experience. Readers have to strain their eyes and spend time re-reading every sentence before they eventually leave.

Instead, prioritize readability in your design with:

• Visual breakpoints
• Clear text hierarchy
• Good font selection
• Generous white space
• Equal paragraph spacing

Designing for readability removes friction for your readers, helping them grasp your ideas more clearly.

Scannability 

Most people scan content before reading it thoroughly, no matter how well-written your article is. A scannable blog design acknowledges this instead of arguing against it.

Think about it this way: Your readers will likely scan the headings first and jump to interesting sections before making up their mind to read the entire article. 

Use some of these design elements to create scannability, such as:

• Headings 
• Bullet lists
• Callout boxes
• Section dividers
• Pull/block quotes
• Table of contents

You want to set up natural pathways in your content to accommodate this reading pattern. 

Consistency 

Consistency in design can lower the cognitive load for your readers. 

When you offer a familiar experience with navigation, typography, and even spacing, readers don’t have to put extra effort into relearning how your blog (or website) works. 

Since they’re already accustomed to these design features, they can focus more on your content. 

This principle aligns with the “Consistency and Standards” heuristic by Jakob Nielsen, widely known as the father of usability design. He emphasizes that maintaining consistency in your design interface reduces the mental effort required to process information. 

As a result, the experience feels more intuitive and comfortable.

Accessibility 

Accessibility is at the core of inclusive design. Beyond inclusivity, it also has practical benefits for all types of readers because designs that work for people with disabilities can also reduce friction for all readers.

Here are some ways you can infuse accessibility into your blog design:

• Proper color contrast: Use contrasting colors to make your text easily readable.
• Clear navigation: Make it easy for people to search and find the information they need.
• Image alt texts: Help readers understand the context of images or media assets.
• Header tags: Create a clear structure with an intuitive heading hierarchy (which also helps with readability and scannability).

Designing for accessibility allows you to accommodate edge cases while presenting a more seamless reading experience for everyone.

Seven essential elements to include in your blog design

Before we dive into our blog design best practices, let’s look at seven elements that contribute to an effective blog design:

• Thumbnail images: Add an image to quickly communicate what your article is all about. The thumbnail also offers a glimpse into your content when people share links on social media.
• Author profiles: Google prefers content that showcases real expertise. Author and contributor profiles allow you to credit the experts who produced the content and establish credibility.
• Table of contents: A table of contents respects your readers’ time. It allows them to browse the entire article structure and jump to any section that interests them.  
• Related content: Don’t let readers hit a dead end. Instead, share a selection of relevant resources on sidebars or end-of-post sections to help them find more information.
• Negative space: Add white space to create some breathing room in your blog layout and avoid cluttering too many elements together.
• Blog attributes: You want to add the publish date, update date, reading time, category, and other details to help readers quickly understand when the post was written and what a post is about. 
• Call to action: Guide readers toward the next step with 1-2 CTAs strategically placed in your blog. Prioritize the most relevant CTAs for your topic and place one at the end of the content.

These design elements can make your blog more effortless and engaging. 

Now that we’ve clued you in on the basics, let’s break down our top tips on how to design a blog. 

How to design a blog (five best practices)

A well-designed blog combines form and function. We’ve curated these tried-and-tested tips to help you strike the right balance between the two aspects for your blog design. 

1. Strategically choose the right blogging platform 

When evaluating blogging platforms, consider your current needs and future plans. While beginners might prefer a lightweight, no-frills solution, they’ll likely face constraints when their blog grows. 

That’s why the ideal platform combines ease of use with room to evolve, which is exactly what you get with WordPress. 

WordPress powers over 40% of all websites, and for good reason. 

For starters, you get a user-friendly interface to build a blog, whether you’re a complete beginner or someone with technical experience. You can choose from thousands of free themes to get started. 

Add plugins to make your blog design more functional while taking care of aspects like SEO, email capture, and appointment bookings. 

More importantly, WordPress gives you a robust content management system to publish and handle content proactively, even as you scale your publishing volume. Its intuitive interface and editing tools are fit for users of all skill levels, whether you’re a writer, marketer, or developer. 

The best part? Since WordPress is open-source, you’re never locked into a proprietary system that might limit your future options or make it difficult to move your content elsewhere.

When you build on WordPress.com, you can sidestep many maintenance tasks required in self-hosting. 

Your WordPress.com plan has maintenance features built into it by default. That means:

• Automatic core/theme/plugin updates. 
• Regular security and malware scanning.
• Daily backups and built-in caching.
• Free SSL certificates to keep your site secure for visitors.

With all the backend maintenance taken care of, you have more time to focus on your design and content.

Learn more: Ready to start a new blog? Check out our best advice to set yourself up for long-term success.

2. Create a consistent and recognizable brand identity 

Consistent, brand-aligned design makes your content instantly recognizable across multiple touchpoints—whether someone’s seeing it on your site, in an email, or in their social feed.

To create a strong brand identity, you need to define:

• Design system: You should outline the ideal layout with spacing, margins, and padding values. Document specific color codes and measurements for all visual elements. Plus, you can create reusable components like buttons, headings, and navigation elements.
• Visual hierarchy: Design a clear content structure using different sizes, weights, and colors for heading levels. You can also write instructions for incorporating whitespace and alignment patterns.
• Core brand elements: This is the groundwork for your brand’s visual identity. You need a typeface and color palette with 2-3 primary colors and 1-2 accent colors that reflect your brand personality. Set clear rules for visuals—like aspect ratios and how images are framed—to make your blog look consistent and professional.

With WordPress as your blogging software, you can customize your blog design per your visual identity while maintaining consistency with global styles, which keep your branding intact across all posts. 

Build your custom design system by choosing the typography, color scheme, background colors, shadows, and layout. 

Define your typography settings with fonts, sizes, colors, line height, and letter spacing. You can also adjust the appearance for different text types, like headings, buttons, and captions. 

Set your color palette and customize the colors for different elements, including text, background, links, and more. 

Remember to follow accessibility guidelines and check the contrasts when designing your palette.

You can also create reusable blocks for commonly used elements, like lists, call-to-action buttons, and quotes. This is great for making specific blocks look the same across every post or page. 

One of the big benefits is that when your blog evolves and needs a rebrand, you can update your global styles, ensuring any updates are automatically applied throughout your entire site. 

3. Design easy navigation for an intuitive experience

People who can’t easily navigate your blog get frustrated and leave (unlikely to return). Good, intuitive navigation makes it easy for readers to explore your resources and find what they’re looking for.

Effective blog navigation typically includes:

• A main menu highlighting the core content pillars.
• A search function or filters to find content on specific topics.
• A related reading section linking to articles related to the topic.

Look at how we display the core categories and search bar on the WordPress.com blog: 

If you’re creating an in-depth content hub, you can generate breadcrumb menus to help readers navigate to other sections of this hub. For example, the Backlinko blog uses these menus for its content hubs.

Once your navigation is set, you want to test the flow with actual users to see if it makes sense to people. Remember to pay attention to mobile navigation since navigating on smaller screens can be challenging. 

4. Define rules for a clear visual hierarchy 

Visual hierarchy determines what your readers notice first, second, and third on your blog pages.

A consistent and clear hierarchy gives readers a rhythm to consume content effortlessly. It creates structural clarity and helps people process your content. But an inconsistent hierarchy can create friction in the reading experience. 

To avoid that, start by building your typographic scale for your blog. It’s a set of font styles and sizes arranged in a logical progression in size and weight for different heading levels. 

Here’s an example of a Typographic Scale:

Use color to reinforce this hierarchy. Pick your primary colors for important elements like headers, call-to-action buttons, and key insights, while using secondary colors for non-critical information.

Google’s visual identity guidelines present a great example here. The brand defines its primary, accent, and supporting colors for all assets.

Spacing and alignment also play a crucial role here. 

You want constant margin and padding rules for headings, sidebars, and images to direct focus on important content. And maintain consistent alignment for most content, but strategically break it for elements you want to emphasize, like pull quotes or featured content.

This is where WordPress.com themes can do most of the heavy lifting for you. All of our themes follow a clear visual hierarchy to maintain readability and consistency across all screen sizes. 

The Memphoria theme, for example, clearly designates a typographic scale for different types of text. It also follows consistent padding between paragraphs and images, while the margins differ for the text and images to focus on the latter.

Start by exploring our collection of themes and pick a design system that resonates with your brand. Once you understand your chosen theme’s existing hierarchy, you can customize it to match your vision. 

5. Focus on mobile-first design and layout

Mobile-first design is more than just “nice-to-have” for your blog because most of your readers will consume your content on mobile devices. 

One approach is to design your blog for the smallest screen first, then work backward to expand your layout for larger displays. This way, you can prioritize what really matters and remove what doesn’t. 

Here are a few things to consider when creating an intuitive mobile design:

• Touch targets: Look at the mobile reading experience and find all possible touch targets, like menu items, links, and buttons. These should have an adequate size and spacing. Make them at least 44 x 44 pixels with sufficient spacing to prevent accidental taps.
• Content width: When lines are spaced too far apart and text is broken up, it disrupts the reading flow. If lines are too cramped, they can seem too cluttered. Aim for 30-40 characters per line to hit the sweet spot without constant scrolling.
• Typography: Resize your fonts for small screens and increase the line height by a few points to improve readability. As a best practice, avoid picking fonts with thin strokes that might not be easily visible on mobile displays.
• Visuals: You’ll also need to resize images for smaller screens, from hero images to inline graphics. Check how images load in spotty connections or when you switch between different apps—this is a good way to discover usability problems on your site.

Besides creating a delightful reading experience, a responsive blog design can also improve your performance in search engines. 

Since the majority of website traffic comes from mobile devices, search engines like Google use mobile-first indexing, meaning they crawl your site’s mobile version before the desktop version to determine its rankings.

Further reading: Need help designing the perfect layout for your blog website? Check out these 11 layout examples to make your pick.

Breaking down four great blog design examples

Ready to design (or redesign) your blog? Find some inspiration from these real-world examples to fuel your creativity. 

1. Tonal

Tonal, a home gym equipment brand, features its products and customer stories on its blog. 

The design features a detailed yet neat hero section. It includes the cover image, title, blog category, summary, author, publish date, and social sharing buttons.

The single-column layout with plenty of white space makes the content easy to consume. The font is also easy on the eyes, and each paragraph has enough breathing room to prevent visual clutter. Well-placed headings, visuals, and section breaks make the blog scannable. 

Consistency is another win. The fonts, image framing, and color palette are uniform throughout the page, creating a polished look.

Key highlights:

• Inline visual breaks (like images and videos) and CTAs
• Accessible colors and headings with alt text for images 
• No sticky menus to keep the focus entirely on the content
• Well-spaced layout without any clutter, which is great for mobile users

2. Walnut

Walnut is an interactive demo creation platform. Its blog creatively uses many design elements to create a structured reading experience.

For starters, its single-column layout keeps the reader focused. And a sticky table of contents sidebar makes it easy to jump to any section. 

Walnut’s blog design checks several boxes in terms of accessibility. The color contrast between the text and the background is strong. The visuals use a simple, on-brand style, and readers can listen to each blog post, which is a nice accessibility touch.

Key highlights:

• A sticky table of contents to navigate to any section
• Search bar and list of core topics prominently placed on top
• “Back to top” button to conveniently jump to the beginning of the article
• Colors, fonts, and design signatures consistent with brand identity 

3. Qualtrics 

Qualtrics is an experiment management SaaS platform. The brand has a massive content ecosystem with a special focus on design. 

The blog uses generous white space to improve readability, and its typographic scale for headings, captions, links, and pull quotes makes the content easily skimmable. The design also follows an accessible color palette with a white background, black text, and blue links. 

What makes this design unique is a built-in feedback tool where readers can rate the article with a thumbs up or down.

Key highlights:

• Core content categories highlighted at the top
• A sticky sidebar with CTAs and social sharing buttons
• Features eight resources in the “Related Articles” section
• Contributor profiles are linked at the top with photos for added credibility

4. Spotify 

Spotify’s blog has a clean, neatly spaced layout. The hero section opens with a big cover image, title, and publish date. 

The blog reinforces Spotify’s visual identity using the same font and color palette you see in its app. It also follows the brand’s modern and sleek aesthetic.

Scannability is built into the blog layout through visual cues. You’ll see a few breakpoints with images and embedded playlists. While a table of contents could improve navigation further, the current design scores high on accessibility and consistency.

Key highlights:

• Monochrome background with heavy image layering
• A big search bar in the top corner to support navigation 
• Bold, oversized headings contrasted with minimalist body text
• Seamless flow without sticky CTAs for more immersive scrolling

Over to you: you’re all set to design your blog 

Great design is a surefire way to build credibility for your blog. 

And WordPress makes it a breeze to design the blog of your dreams, ticking all the boxes we covered in this guide. With customizable themes, responsive layouts, and global styling options, you have the flexibility and convenience to bring your creative vision to life. 

WordPress.com combines everything you need—hosting, domains, performance, support, and more—into one platform designed to scale with you. Best of all? Maintenance is handled for you, so you can spend less time managing your blog and more time building it.

A slow website is no different. If your site is dragging its feet, not only does it dampen the user experience, but it can also hurt your search rankings. Google loves fast-loading websites, just like all of us.

There’s no denying it: A fast website speed isn’t just “nice to have;” it’s make-or-break. In this article, I’ll share how you can measure and improve the speed of your WordPress site.

How do you measure the speed of your WordPress website?

The good news is that a dedicated Core Performance team supports the WordPress software and improves your website performance with every update.

That said, there’s always room to make your website even faster. Just because your website loads quickly on your device doesn’t mean it’s optimized for blazing fast speed, especially as you add more content and plugins to your site.

This is why you should test your website’s speed using a free tool like WordPress Page Speed Test. Simply enter your page or post URL to check how fast that page loads on mobile and desktop.

You’ll get a detailed breakdown of your site’s speed with a rating out of 100. You’ll also see a breakdown of the Core Web Vitals that impact your score:

• First Contentful Paint (FCP): FCP measures how long it takes the first elements (text or images) to appear on screen. Aim for an FCP score below 1.8 seconds.
• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): LCP is the time it takes for the largest piece of content (like images or a header) to appear on the screen. Aim for an LCP score below 2.5 seconds.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): CLS tracks how things (like buttons or text) move on the screen while the page loads. Aim for a CLS score below 0.1.
• Time to First Byte (TTFB): TTFB is how fast your website starts to load when someone clicks on it. Aim for a TTFB score of below 800 milliseconds.
• Total Blocking Time (TBT): TBT measures how long it takes for your website to become responsive when it starts to load. Aim for a TBT score below 200 milliseconds.

The WordPress Speed Test doesn’t just give you a performance score—it also suggests ways you can improve each score. You can see personalized recommendations for optimizing your website speed for mobile and desktop devices.

The best part? The tool highlights the recommendations that will impact your site’s speed the most. When you click on each recommendation, you’ll see specific information about:

• The reasons behind the recommendations
• Various options to implement the recommendations
• Potential speed savings you can expect if you implement the recommendations

The best way to optimize your WordPress website is to work on these recommendations. After all, they are specifically tailored to your website. That said, you can also execute various best practices to ensure your website doesn’t snooze on the job. 

Nine ways to improve the speed of your WordPress website

Because WordPress is open source, it gives you a flexible foundation upon which you can build a website. But like any website platform, performance depends on how your site is set up and managed. 

Here are nine best practices to help you fine-tune your site for optimal speed:

1. Choose a fast hosting service

Your web hosting sets the foundation for your website’s performance. You can have the fanciest theme, lightweight plugins, and all the proper optimizations, but your website will be slow if your hosting is slow.

A good hosting provider takes extra measures to ensure top-notch website performance and offers excellent support. If you are on a shared hosting plan, you share the server resources with various customers. If their website gets a lot of traffic or uses up too much bandwidth, it might slow down your website.

This is why it’s best to pick a WordPress hosting provider like WordPress.com. Sites hosted on WordPress.com are fast, and they come with these speed-boosting features:

• High-frequency CPUs: These processors handle tasks more quickly, which can reduce the time it takes for your site to process requests and deliver content. 
• High-burst capacity: WordPress.com can handle sudden or seasonal spikes in traffic with no sweat. You never have to worry about your website suddenly getting too many visitors and being unable to capitalize on the opportunity. Plus, we don’t charge extra for bandwidth or traffic.
• Global edge caching and a CDN with 28+ locations: WordPress.com’s global edge cache and CDN ensure visitors get fast loading times, regardless of location. Edge caching stores static versions of your site at data centers close to your users (instead of sending every visitor’s request to the origin server).
• WP Cloud architecture (which powers our Business and Commerce plans): WP Cloud is a purpose-built infrastructure for WordPress, designed to deliver top-tier speed, uptime, and performance, without requiring any manual setup.

When you combine the above capabilities with Jetpack, which is included with all WordPress.com sites, your site is automatically optimized for speed and performance, no extra work required.

2. Use a high-quality, lightweight theme

While themes customize the appearance and functionality of your website, they also impact your website’s performance. A bloated theme with large graphics and excessive animations will slow down your website.

View the theme of your choice on desktop and mobile (or use our Speed Test) to check how fast the page elements load. If there’s a lot of lag, consider switching to another theme.

If you use themes in the WordPress.com repository, you don’t need to worry about choosing a speedy theme. All of the themes in the repository are optimized for speed (and there are tens of thousands to choose from!).

If you’re using a theme from a third-party provider, read reviews to ensure you choose one optimized for site speed and one with excellent support.

3. Compress your images

Large image files can negatively impact the speed of your website because they take longer to load. Compressing your pictures reduces their size without hurting the quality of the visual elements.

You can compress images before uploading them to your site using online compression tools like TinyPNG, and you can install plugins like Smush to optimize your already-uploaded images directly from your WordPress dashboard.

You can also install the Jetpack Boost plugin and enable the Site Accelerator to optimize your images automatically.

1. Click on Jetpack in the left-hand menu.
2. Go to the Performance tab.
3. Enable the Site Accelerator under “Performance & speed.”

If you have a WordPress.com site on a Business or Commerce plan, the Site Accelerator is automatically enabled.

4. Choose your plugins wisely

Each plugin adds a bit of weight to your site’s load time. Use only what you need and deactivate the rest.

It’s worthwhile to periodically review the plugins activated on your site and deactivate and delete the ones you no longer use. It’s also a best practice to ensure the plugins you choose are actively maintained and have excellent support.

This is also where using a good hosting provider can come in handy. On WordPress.com, for instance, you don’t have to install separate plugins for security, spam protection, caching, and backups because these functionalities are already taken care of for all sites without needing external plugins

5. Clean your database and media library regularly

If you’ve been running your WordPress site for a while, chances are you’ve accumulated content and files you no longer need, like old drafts, trashed posts, or spam comments.

Reducing this clutter from your database can improve your website speed. Plugins such as WP Sweep and WP-Optimize can quicken this process. They will comb through your database to find files and content you can delete.

You may also have unused images in your media library, and deleting them can help reduce clutter and improve performance. In that case, something like the Media Cleaner plugin can come in handy.

6. Use a content delivery network (CDN) for faster global loading

A content delivery network (CDN) helps your website load faster by distributing copies of your site’s static content (like images, scripts, and stylesheets) to servers worldwide. When someone visits your site, that content is served from the location closest to them, which significantly reduces load times.

If you’re hosting with WordPress.com, good news: a global CDN with 28+ edge locations is already built in. That means faster performance for your visitors, no matter where they are in the world—no extra setup or plugins required.

If you’re not on WordPress.com, you can use a third-party CDN provider like Cloudflare to get similar benefits.

7. Add caching

When a new visitor enters your site, each image, element, and piece of text needs to load. Caching saves a version of your site, which reduces load times and speeds up repeat visits. The next time the same visitor views your site, the load time will be much faster because your website pages aren’t rebuilding from scratch.

WordPress.com’s global edge cache makes your site load faster for visitors worldwide by taking advantage of our global network of data centers. Our caching system stores and delivers content from servers closer to your visitors, improving page load speed.

Many hosts charge extra for this kind of edge caching or require integration with a third-party provider. On WordPress.com, global edge caching is included on every plan without any bandwidth restrictions.

W3 Total Cache is a popular caching plugin for WordPress sites if you’re hosted on a non-WordPress.com plan.

8. Limit third-party scripts

External scripts include everything that loads on your website from third-party sites or services, like Google Analytics, YouTube videos, ads, and social media feeds.

If you’re using too many of these scripts, it’ll compromise your site’s performance. Whenever your site needs to load an external script, it must reach out to a third-party server, wait for it to respond, download the file, and then render your page.

A plugin like Autoptimize can help you identify and limit these external scripts wherever possible.

9. Use lazy loading for faster performance on long pages

Lazy loading helps your site load faster by only loading images, videos, and other elements when a user scrolls down to see them, rather than all at once when the page first loads. This reduces initial load time and improves performance, especially on pages with lots of media.

Lazy loading is already built into WordPress and supported by most modern browsers. In many cases, it’s enabled by default—no plugin required. WordPress.com goes even further by lazy loading images with Jetpack, helping ensure smooth, fast performance for your visitors. 

If you’re managing your own WordPress site and want more control or advanced options (like lazy loading background images or iframes), you can use a plugin like Lazy Load to fine-tune how it works on your site.

Each second counts

Depending on hosting and site setup, WordPress sites are reliable, fast, and secure, but executing the best practices above will ensure you improve your site’s user experience.

Optimizing your WordPress site for better performance is a constant maintenance task, but as your website grows, you want to spend less time doing (and worrying about) the admin work and more time creating.

WordPress.com combines what you need—hosting, domains, ecommerce, performance, and support—into one seamless platform that grows with you.

In this post, we’ll show you how to connect Google Analytics to your WordPress site so that you can start uncovering actionable insights about your content and users.

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is a free website analytics tool that helps you understand how visitors navigate and interact with your site. It’s easy to connect (more on that below) by adding a tracking code to your WordPress site. Once installed, it helps you better understand:

• Your website visitor demographics (like location, device type, and browser)
• How people find your site (like Google search, social media, and direct visits)
• Individual page interactions (like which pages are viewed most and how long your readers stay on your site)
• Conversions (like purchases, signups, and downloads)

Installing Google Analytics on your site enables you to make data-driven decisions, like tailoring your website experience and marketing campaigns according to visitor preferences and behavior.

Install Google Analytics on your WordPress site

Ready to add Google Analytics to your site? Follow these steps to start collecting data:

Step 1: Sign up for Google Analytics

You’ll need to create a Google Analytics account if you don’t already have one.

1. Go to the Google Analytics website and click “Get started today.”

2. Give your account a name by entering an “Account name” and customize your data sharing settings. These settings will allow you to control how much of your site data you share with Google.

3. The next step is to “Create a property,” which is the website Google will track. Enter the name of your business or website here. You will also choose your reporting time zone and local currency.

4. The final steps are about your business or website. Choose an industry that best matches your niche and your business size.

5. Choose the business objectives that fit your purpose of using Google Analytics. For example, if you want to increase blog traffic, select “Understand web and/or app traffic.” You can choose multiple categories if you have more than one goal.

6. Click Create and accept Google’s Terms of Service Agreement.
7. Finally, choose your data streams. These sources will help Google collect information about your content’s performance to provide accurate analytics. Choose Web and type your URL. Enter your site name in “Stream Name.” Google Analytics turns on “Enhanced Measurements” by default, allowing it to measure interactions on your website. You can toggle this off if you just want to measure page views.

8. Click “Create and continue” to finish setting up your Google Analytics account.

Step 2: Copy your Measurement ID

Once you finish setting up your account, Google Analytics will provide you with your web stream details: your Stream Name, Stream URL, Stream ID, and Measurement ID.

Click the copy icon next to your Measurement ID. This is the number you’ll need to connect to your WordPress site.

Step 3: Add the Measurement ID to your WordPress website

There are three ways to add your Measurement ID to your WordPress site:

• Use a plugin like Site Kit by Google or MonsterInsights
• Add a code to your WordPress theme
• Use Jetpack, which comes pre-installed on WordPress.com sites

You only need to add your Google Analytics information to your website once using one of the methods above; adding your analytics measurement to your site more than once may result in inaccurate reporting.

If you want to use a plugin, simply activate it and follow the step-by-step instructions. Each plugin has a slightly different process, but they should guide you through the connection process.

If you want to add code to your theme manually, follow these steps:

1. Go to your Google Analytics dashboard.
2. Click Admin in the bottom-left corner.
3. Under the Property column, click “Data Streams.”
4. Scroll down and click “View tag instructions.”
5. Copy the full tracking script under “Install manually.”

6. Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
7. Paste the code in your theme’s header.php file.

We recommend only using the code method if you’re comfortable editing theme files. The plugin method works just fine if you aren’t confident in editing your website theme’s code. Moreover, when your theme updates or changes, this code may be overwritten.

If you have a website on WordPress.com, you don’t need to use a plugin or code to integrate Google Analytics. Sites on our Premium, Business, Commerce, or legacy Pro plans can use the pre-installed Jetpack plugin to easily connect your site to your Google Analytics account:

1. Go to your WordPress.com dashboard.
2. Navigate to Tools → Marketing (or Jetpack → Settings if using WP Admin).
3. Select the Traffic tab.
4. Find the Google section and enter your Measurement ID in the “Google Analytics Measurement ID” box.
5. Click “Save settings.”

After following one of the three methods outlined above, Google Analytics will start capturing your website data in 48–72 hours.

How to use Google Analytics to improve your site performance

While Google Analytics has plenty of information and data for site owners, it’s only valuable if you know how to use it. Here are three use cases to make sense of the data you see in Google Analytics now that it’s connected to your WordPress site:

1. Analyze the behavior of your website visitors

Google Analytics tracks how your website visitors interact with your content. You can see:

• Clicks
• Page views
• Bounce rate
• Average engagement time

You’ll find this data under the Reports section in Google Analytics. If you open the “Life cycle” collection, you can dig into the Engagement reports, including the Pages and screens report, which summarizes content views and how long users stay:

These metrics can help you understand how your website content is performing. For example, they can highlight pages with low views, minimal clicks, or high bounce rates and help you investigate why visitors aren’t engaging. Is the content missing the mark? Is the load time too slow? Is it just a seasonal dip?

You can use the insights here to improve the user experience on your website.

2. Gain a deeper understanding of who your ideal visitors are

How well do you think you know your website visitors? You likely had a certain target audience in mind while creating your website; Google Analytics can help you verify whether or not you’re reaching them.

In Google Analytics’s “User attributes” section, you can monitor the demographic details of your website visitors: location, gender, interests, and age.

If you want to dive deeper, go to the Audiences section. It will show you the nitty-gritty details, such as the demographic information about your customers with high purchase activity, people with abandoned carts, and engaged visitors.

These insights are especially valuable if you run a business using your website. For example, if you notice that most of the audience in your abandoned cart is on a mobile device, it might be a signal to make your design more mobile-friendly.

3. Inform your SEO strategy

If you’re working to improve your site’s search result rankings, Google Analytics (especially the Search Console report) can provide valuable data to inform your strategy.

You can monitor which keywords you rank for, click-through rates from Google search results, and how your ranking changes over time.

These insights can fuel your search engine optimization strategy to include more of the right keywords in the right places. Combining these SEO insights with the engagement metrics (also present in GA4) allows you to strategically make changes to ensure people stay on your site longer.

On websites powered by WordPress.com, you also get a host of additional SEO features to boost your efforts, such as adding meta descriptions and customizing your titles for search results.

Turn data into direction

Once you have Google Analytics set up on your WordPress site, you’ll want to ensure you’re regularly checking in on its performance. Don’t let those numbers just collect dust; use them as your guideposts to understand what’s working on your site and what needs improvement.

And as your website grows, you’ll need reliable hosting and built-in tools to help you work more efficiently. WordPress.com brings everything together—hosting, domains, ecommerce tools, performance, and expert support—in one seamless platform that scales with you. Get started with WordPress.com or migrate your existing WordPress site today.