Duplicate content can confuse users and search engines, and eventually lead to lower rankings in search results if not handled properly. 

In this article, we will explain what exactly duplicate content is, teach you why it can be a problem for SEO, and share some tips for how to handle and avoid duplicate content issues on your website. 

• What is Duplicate Content?
• Why Duplicate Content is an Issue for SEO
• How to Fix Duplicate Content Issues

What is Duplicate Content?

Duplicate content is content that appears in multiple locations within or across more than one domain on the internet.

Any content that appears on more than one URL runs the risk of being deemed duplicate content. 

Whether it is a direct copy of an entire page or content that features substantive blocks of similar or identical text that exists on another URL, it is most likely duplicate content. 

Types of Duplicate Content

There are two types of duplicate content that website owners have to deal with:

Onsite: Having the same content duplicated on multiple URLs on your own site. This is something you can fix internally.

Offsite: When the content of your page is the exact same as the content that has been published by one or more other websites. While you can’t prevent this from happening, fixing it requires working with the owners of the offending websites to get the duplicate content removed. 

If you find that another website has copied your content, the first thing you can do is visit that site’s contact page to find an email address, then send them an email requesting to have duplicate content removed. To make your email more persuasive, inform them that you will be filing a DMCA complaint against them if the content is not taken down quickly. 

Hopefully, that works, but if not, you can use Digital.com’s Hosting Checker Tool to find out who is hosting the offending website. 

Once you have that info, contact the web host with proof that you are the original author of the stolen content and ask that they take it down. 

Many web hosts such as InMotion Hosting even have an automated Trademark Notice From in place so you can submit stolen content for an official review to have it removed. 

Why Duplicate Content Is An Issue For SEO

According to Google, having duplicate content on your site will not negatively affect your rankings: 

“Duplicate content on a site is not grounds for action on that site unless it appears that the intent of the duplicate content is to be deceptive and manipulate search engine results. If your site suffers from duplicate content issues, and you don’t follow the advice listed in this document, we do a good job of choosing a version of the content to show in our search results.”

However, while duplicate content does not directly impact you in the search results as a ranking factor, what it does do is make it more difficult for Google and other search engines to determine which page to suggest to search users. 

Those same guidelines tell us that Google tries hard to index and show pages with distinct information. That means Google is looking for pages with unique content.

When you publish duplicate content on your site, the individual pages that feature that duplicate content lose their value of being unique, and Google will note that when crawling and indexing your site.

Google does a decent job at picking which page to show to users, but sometimes it gets it wrong. If that’s the case, you run the risk of your target audience not seeing or engaging with your content, which will hurt your user experience and eventually cause those individual pages to rank lower.

How to Fix Duplicate Content Issues

The good news is that if you do have duplicate content there are some steps you can take to make sure Google shows visitors the content you want them to see. 

Below are some tips you can use to control the content Google shows:

Canonical Tags

The best available solution for duplicate content if you have multiple pages with largely identical content on your website is to tell Google which URL you want it to show in search results.

This can be done using canonical tags. These tags tell Google and other search engines which URL is the master copy of a page and should be the canonical URL. 

Unless you specify a canonical URL to Google, Google will make that decision for you. And the URL it chooses might not be the one you want to send traffic to. 

On top of specifying your chosen URL to Google, canonical tags have a couple of other benefits:

• Consolidate link signals for duplicate content
• Simplify teaching for duplicate pages
• Manage syndicated content
• Make the most of your crawl budget

If you haven’t implemented canonical tags and want to know which URL Google considers the canonical URL for duplicate pages on your site, you can find that information using Google’s URL inspection tool. 

301 Redirects

301 redirects can be helpful if you have restructured your site.

Also known as “RedirectPermanent”, 301 redirects inform search engines that an old link has been replaced by a new one. They can be used in your .htaccess file to redirect users, Googlebot, and other crawling spiders to the correct URL. 

Learn How to Set Up a 301 Redirect in .htaccess.

Be Consistent

Once you have decided which URL you want to use as the primary one for internal linking purposes, be consistent about only linking to that primary URL. 

As an example, you do not want to link to http://www.example.com/page/, http://www.example.com/page, and http://www.example.com/page/index.htm when all three pages contain the same info. 

Choose one and stick to it. 

Use TLDs

International SEO can provide a big boost for your business in the search results, but if you use different URLs to serve up country-specific content, it is important to use the correct URL structure to tell Google which version of a page to serve up.

For instance, Google’s guidelines tell us that it is more likely to know that http://www.example.de contains Germany-focused content than http://www.example.com/de or http://de.example.com.

Syndicate Carefully

Content syndication can be a great way to reach an audience, but it’s important to know that Google will always show the version it believes to be the most appropriate for users in each given search, and that may or may not be the version of that content you would prefer.

As a standard best practice for syndication, make sure each site on which your content is syndicated includes a link back to your original article.

If you have a good relationship with the sites that syndicate your content, you can also ask them to use the noindex tag to prevent search engines from indexing their version of your content.

Minimize Boilerplate Repetition 

Boilerplates can be a great opportunity to give an overview of your company but there is no need to include a large paragraph about your company at the bottom of every page. 

Instead of having your boilerplate on all your pages, include a very brief description and use it to link to a URL that has the full details about your company. 

Don’t Publish Stubs

Building empty pages can be helpful as placeholders when you are building a site, but “stubs” —  or “empty pages” — don’t go over well with users. 

Google suggests that you don’t publish a page that isn’t finished or doesn’t have real content.

If you do need to publish a page as a placeholder, use the noindex tag to block your unfinished pages from being indexed.

Understand Your CMS

Whether you use WordPress or another content management system (CMS), make sure you have a good understanding of how content is displayed on your website.

Things such as blogs, internet forums, and other similar systems often show the same versions of content in multiple formats. 

If your CMS is using multiple formats as the same content, all those formats are competing for the same traffic.  

Minimize Similar Content

As we covered above, it should be your goal to have unique content on each page of your website.

If you find that you have several pages with similar content, consider expanding that content to make it more specifically targeted for each page, or consolidating all that content into a single page that can serve as a valuable resource for traffic. 

Duplicate content itself is not a terrible issue, but it can become a problem if you don’t handle it correctly. 

If you do have duplicate content on your website, it’s important to go through the necessary steps to make sure Google and other search engines know which version of that content you want to draw traffic. 

Otherwise, you run the risk of confusing users and search engines, which can lead to a drop in your rankings. 

Did you know that duplicate content is one of the most common SEO mistakes website owners make? Check out some other tips to keep you out of trouble with 8 Common SEO Mistakes to Avoid.

Limit WordPress admin login attempts

This guide will show how you to limit WordPress admin login attempts by IP address, or referrer. Below we’ll show you, how to get to your .htaccess file, and what edits to make, to limit WordPress admin logins.

1. Log into your cPanel.
2. Find the Files category and click on the File Manager icon.
   
3. Click Settings at the top right corner.
   
4. Select the Document Root for your domain and check the box next to Show Hidden Files. Click Save.
   
5. Right-click the .htaccess file and select the Edit option.
   
6. If you have a text editor encoding dialog box pop up, simply click Edit.

How to restrict WordPress admin access

Secondary WordPress admin .htaccess password (Recommended if your IP changes)

A single IP address

Multiple IP addresses

Trusted referrers

Single IP address access

You can check your IP to get your computer’s IP address.

To allow access from a single IP address, replace 123.123.123.123 with your own IP address:

RewriteEngine on 
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*)?wp-login.php(.*)$ [OR] 
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*)?wp-admin$ 
RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} !^123.123.123.123$ RewriteRule ^(.*)$ – [R=403,L]

Multiple IP address access

  You can check your IP to get your computer’s IP address.

To allow access from multiple IP addresses, replace 123.123.123.xxx with your own IP addresses:

RewriteEngine on 
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*)?wp-login.php(.*)$ [OR] 
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*)?wp-admin$ 
RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} !^123.123.123.121$ 
RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} !^123.123.123.122$ 
RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} !^123.123.123.123$ 
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [R=403,L]

Dynamic IP address access, limit by referrer

If your IP address changes, you can protect your WordPress site by only allowing login requests that come directly from your domain name. Simply replace example.com with your own domain name Most brute force attacks rely on sending direct POST requests right to your wp-login.php script. So requiring a POST request to have your domain as the referrer can help weed out bots.

RewriteEngine on 
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} POST 
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^https://(.*)?example.com [NC] 
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*)?wp-login.php(.*)$ [OR] 
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*)?wp-admin$ RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [F]

Wait at least 15-20 minutes, and try to log into your WordPress site again. If you try to access the WordPress dashboard within the 15 minute window of a block, this could extend the block longer.

It’s important to wait for the previous block to expire and be patient before attempting to access your WordPress site again. You should now be blocking unauthorized WordPress admin login attempts utilizing .htaccess rules.

SEO takes a lot of time and effort, but just because you put in the work, does not guarantee you will see results. 

In fact, many companies spend a lot of their mental bandwidth on optimizing their website for SEO, but they may actually be doing more harm than good by making some common SEO mistakes. 

In this article, we will introduce you to several of the most commonly-made SEO mistakes and teach you how you can correct or avoid them altogether.

• Using the Wrong Keywords
• Sleeping on Speed
• Forgetting About Local Search
• Failing to Use Unique Title Tags and Meta Descriptions
• Not Using Analytics
• Creating Poor-Quality Content
• Not Making Mobile SEO a Priority 
• Duplicate Content 

Common SEO Mistakes

From local small businesses to large corporate companies, here are the SEO mistakes that happen most often:

Using the Wrong Keywords

Creating content around targeted keywords is standard SEO best practice and something you should definitely be doing, but it’s important to ensure you are targeting the right keywords. 

One of the most common SEO mistakes is trying to rank for the wrong keywords. Just because a keyword has a high search volume doesn’t mean you should target it.

If you want your content to rank, you have to optimize it for the right keywords.

Below are some examples of keywords you want to avoid targeting:

• Global keywords: Keywords that target a multitude of regions worldwide when you only offer your services locally. 
• Generic keywords: Keywords used to bring people to your site who are not your target audience or customer base. 
• Low-value keywords: Keywords that attract visitors in search of free information but not potential customers who actually want to make a purchase.
• Board keywords: High-competition keywords that will be extremely hard to rank for 

Instead of aiming for the keyword examples above, focus on coming up with keywords that are more specific. The longer and more specific your keywords are, the better chance you have of ranking for those keywords. 

Sleeping on Speed

Everyone loves a fast website, especially Google. The faster your site, the more likely Google is to show it some love. The slower your site, the more likely it is to fall in the rankings.

If you know your website has speed issues, doing what you can to make it faster should be one of your top SEO priorities. 

This also applies to WordPress installations. If you are the owner of a WordPress website, it’s a good idea to take a look at which plugins you have activated. 

Are you using all of your activated plugins? If not, they could be slowing down your website. 

Review all your activated plugins to see if any can be removed. If there are none that can be removed, maybe some of your plugins could be replaced with a single plugin that combines several of those functions. 

If you are not sure how fast your site is, check out the free and useful Google PageSpeed Insights tool. 

All you have to do is enter a URL, and Google will give you an overview of what elements you can improve on to enhance the speed of a given page.

Make the changes Google suggests, and you should see an improvement in your site speed and eventually in your rankings. 

Looking for a quick way to speed up your website? Learn how image SEO can give your website speed a boost. 

Forgetting About Local Search

When you optimize your content, it’s important to remember to optimize it for local SEO as well.

If you have a business that focuses on customers who live within a specific city or region, knowing how to optimize your content for local search is an absolute must. 

This includes using region-specific keywords in your content, title tags, and meta descriptions, as well as including your local address and phone number on your pages. 

The goal is to provide visitors with consistent and accurate information about your business and making it easy to find. Doing this will give you a good chance of showing up in local search results.

Failing to Use Unique Title Tags and Meta Descriptions

If you are one of the companies that use your company or website name for the title of all of your web pages, you are missing a massive opportunity to optimize those pages for search engines. 

Every page on your website should have its own unique title that should describe what the purpose of that page is. 

Why? Because your title tags are used as the text for bookmarks when someone bookmarks your page, and those titles are often when your article is shared on social media. 

If you want to consistently include your company or website name in your page titles, that’s fine, but do it at the end of the title after you’ve already used the specific keyword that page is targeting. 

It is also important to not forget about your meta descriptions.

Meta descriptions are your chance to pitch your webpage to search users. You have 160 characters to tell users why your page is worth clicking on. Those 160 characters should include your target keywords and make users want to click on your link in the search results.

Not Using Analytics

No matter how much time and effort you pour into optimizing your website, it can all be wasted if you are not utilizing analytics. 

The only way you can measure success is by tracking it. 

Using free tools such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console, you can track your optimization efforts to see which strategies work and which ones do not. 

Once you have that information, it will be much easier to optimize your content and know what you are doing is producing results.

Creating Poor-Quality Content

When it comes to SEO, content is king. No matter what SEO best practices or standards you incorporate, they won’t go very far for you if you don’t have high-quality content. 

Below are some of the most common mistakes people make when forgetting to create good content. 

• Too short: Content needs to be at least 300 words to give Google enough copy to determine what a page is about. If you write less than 300 words, you are more or less telling Google your page isn’t a good match for the search query. 
• Prioritizing search engines over website visitors: It’s important to always keep your audience in mind. 
• Unoriginal content: If your content is not original and brings nothing of real value to the table, it will get lost in the shuffle. 
• Keyword stuffing: Keyword stuffing used to be an SEO tactic, but now it can actually get you dinged by Google. If you are focusing on cramming in keywords instead of making the text easy to read and consume for your visitors, your content won’t shine.

It’s a great idea to have the content on your site optimized, but if neglect to think about the impression your content will have on your visitors, all that optimization can be for naught. 

To earn your visitors’ trust, focus on producing high-quality, original content that is both unique and valuable, then you can turn your attention to optimizing your pages for SEO. 

Not Making Mobile SEO a Priority 

Much like local SEO, mobile SEO can have a huge impact on how your content is ranked. 

Google switched to mobile-first indexing on July 1, 2019. What that means is that Google now predominantly uses the mobile version of your content for indexing and ranking, and uses that version to figure out how high your content should rank. 

That means if you spend all your time making a beautiful desktop version of your website but neglect the mobile experience, your rankings will reflect that. Google recommends that your content be the same on both mobile and desktop versions of your website. 

Google also says that you should make sure that the descriptive title and meta description are equivalent across both versions of your site.

If you want to check and see how mobile-friendly your site is to use, you can do so with Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test, which tells you how easy it is for visitors to access and use your site on mobile devices. 

If you find that your site isn’t meeting your mobile expectations, you can audit your site by browsing it on a mobile device. Spend some time on the mobile version of your site, visit all your pages, click on all your links, buttons, and images, and see how your site responds. 

Mobile usage is here to stay and it’s becoming more important every day. If you take the time to optimize your site for mobile, you should notice an improvement in your rankings. 

Duplicate Content

Duplicate content can kill your SEO. 

Not only can it lead to keyword cannibalization, but it can also cause Google to harshly penalize your site. 

Some SEOs deliberately duplicate content on their site in an attempt to manipulate search engine rankings or draw more traffic, but when they do this, Google makes appropriate adjustments in how it indexes and ranks those sites.

This can hurt you big time in the rankings, but even worse, it can also lead to Google removing your site from the Google index altogether. 

If that happens, you will need to make changes to your site, then submit it to Google for reconsideration.

Even then, there is no guarantee your site will be added back to the rankings. 

It is not worth the risk. To be safe, avoid creating duplicate content. 

Optimizing your website for SEO is a great idea, but like many things, you want to make sure you are doing it the right way.

Otherwise, you risk making common SEO mistakes that plague poorly-optimized sites, which can actually hurt your standings in search results. 

On the other hand, if you focus on SEO and avoid the mistakes we covered, you should be well on your way to giving your site a boost in the SERPs. 

Not sure where you stand in the rankings? Learn how to find your SEO ranking online. 

If you use a screen reader, another accessibility device, or just read our recent article on why alt text matters, you already know how important it is to add correctly formatted and contextually appropriate alt text to your page’s images.

It’s one thing to do this sort of media housekeeping with new posts — but if you have a WordPress website with years worth of posts, some of which are missing alt text, it can be hard to know where to start.

A new plugin, Fix Alt Text, promises to help you with exactly this issue. It’s free with full features and especially helpful when it comes to cleaning up large media libraries. In the below plugin review, we’ll provide some context for what makes it worth installing, cover some settings considerations post-installation, and take a look at the main work areas of the plugin dashboard.

• Fix Alt Text Plugin Overview
• Setup, Settings, and Scan
  • Adjust Settings
  • Scan Site and Fix Errors

Fix Alt Text Plugin Overview

Over the years, I’ve grown to appreciate lightweight, focused WordPress plugins that do one task exceptionally well; Fix Alt Text is exactly that sort of plugin. It’s one thing to build a new WordPress site as accessible from the ground up, but quite another matter to repair and redesign an existing WordPress site for accessibility.

An all-in-one solution like the One Click Accessibility plugin can do a lot of good, but it can take some tinkering with the site design to mesh the aesthetic and functional considerations of your site with the plugin. Plus, these types of plugins are more focused on accessibility moving forward. Fixing unresolved accessibility issues in existing content is still a daunting task.

In contrast, Fix Alt Text is laser-focused on helping you fix any problems you have with your site’s images. The plugin will help you efficiently correct any errors within your alt text, while making sure that future posts don’t skip out on this important accessibility practice.

Alt text errors are one of those problems that can linger in your WordPress posts for years. They’re easy to miss unless you are using a screen reader or specifically scanning for them. If your site has hundreds of posts, this plugin will help you zero in on what needs to be fixed, without being a drain on your disk space or server RAM.

Setup, Settings, and Scan

Fix Alt Text installs like any other WordPress plugin: simply head over to Plugins > Add New in your WordPress Dashboard and search for “Fix Alt Text”. Install and activate the plugin and you’ll be up and running.

Without any other action on your part, the plugin is still helpful at this stage — it will make sure that any new images added to a post have alt text before you save the post. That’s nice and all, but to take full advantage of the plugin you’ll want to tweak the plugin settings, run a scan of your site, and use the plugin to fix any alt text errors you have.

Adjust Settings

After installation, the Fix Alt Text plugin will be listed under the Tools section of your WordPress dashboard. Head to it and you’ll notice that the plugin has three tabs: Dashboard, Alt Text, and Settings.

Before we use the plugin to its fullest potential, it’s always a good idea to double-check the settings. The plugin even advises you to do this before running a scan — so let’s click on that Settings tab first thing.

If you have a new WordPress site, or a site without any major changes to the configuration, you should probably stick with default settings. “Other Areas: Media Library” may be an exception depending on your site’s presentation and subject matter. By default, Fix Alt Text will require you to enter alt text for any image in a post or when the image is added to your media library. This is usually a good thing, but remember that quality alt text is contextually accurate alt text. If you are using the same images repeatedly across multiple posts, you will want to adjust the alt text each time to make sure that the most contextually important information is conveyed — check out this example of contextually relevant alt text from the American Library Association if you’re unfamiliar with the concept.

If this is a common concern for your site, I’d turn that option off to make sure that the alt text used is written with each post; this way you can emphasize contextually important information. If you rarely reuse images, though, this isn’t a significant concern. You can also use the settings page to adjust which user roles have access to the Fix Alt Text tool and if a given role is allowed to edit the settings or can only use the tool as configured by your site admin.

If you make any changes, don’t forget to click that Save Settings button at the bottom of the page.

Scan Site and Fix Errors

Time to run our scan — and fix any errors we encounter. Head over to that Dashboard tab. If you haven’t run a scan yet, it should look like the image below.

The test scans I ran went quick on sites with only a few images. You’ll see a scan summary and the number of issues detected in the follow-up screen.

To actually fix the issues, we’ll head to the middle Alt Text tab. Here, you’ll find a convenient list of all the images in your media library, with quick links to the post containing the image. You can even edit the alt text directly from this page using the Edit Inline feature. If you have a lot of images that are missing alt text, this is a speedy way to take care of them all in one go.

Even if you plan to install a more comprehensive accessibility plugin later, the Fix Alt Text plugin can let you resolve an all-too-common accessibility issue with speed and thoroughness. It’s a great tool for the job and highly recommended after my test run with it.

The columns block allows you to use multiple columns through the site/template editor or page/post editor. Using columns helps provide organization for your content so that you can more efficiently fit media and text on the screen in various layouts.

This article will help you understand how you can use the column block and provide a description of the options that you have when using the block.

• Using the Column Block
• Options for the Column Block

This tutorial uses WordPress version 6.0 and the Twenty Twenty-two theme.

Using the Column Block

In order to follow the steps in the tutorial below, you will need to be logged into the WordPress Administrator Dashboard as an administrator.

Adding Text to Multiple Columns

One of the most column uses of columns is to create multiple columns for text. A column example of this is newspapers or other periodicals where the text is more efficiently organized into columns to allow for other content on a page. This first example walks you through using the 50/50 column block and two text blocks.

1. Open an existing post, page, or template, or create a new one.
2. Select the location where you want to add the column block. Use the block inserter or click on the + sign to add a block.
3. Search for the columns block, then select it.
   
   
   
   When you first select the column block you are able to select from some preset variations. There is a choice to skip the presets. This will give a default setting of two columns. This tutorial will demonstrate the use of two columns (50 /50).
   
4. Click on the + sign in order to select the block type you will use in that column.
   
   
   
5. Columns are great for arranging text into multiple column layouts for a page, like a newspaper. In this tutorial, select the paragraph block for both. The paragraph underneath the column will also be moved into the first column.
   
   
   
   Note that the added text is added to the column on the left and that the column size is adjusted to accommodate the pasted text. The text did not automatically flow into the right column.
   
   When you add text, you will need to determine how much text will go in each column to give it a balanced look. You can also decide to intentionally leave the second column with less text than the first. The height and width of the column remain the same as the first.
   
   
   
6. When you’re done placing your column content in columns, then click on Save Draft, Publish, or Update to save your work.
   

Use Columns for Mixed Layouts

1. Columns can also be used to mix media and text. In this tutorial, we will use the preset size of 70/30 when choosing the column. The first block is wider since it will contain graphics.
2. Open an existing post, page, or template, or create a new one.
   Select the location where you want to add the column block. Use the block inserter or click on the + sign to add a block.
3. Search for the columns block, then select it. Select the 70/30 split.
   
   
   
4. Once the block is placed, click on the + sign to add the block you will use for the first column. Do the same for the second column. This example will use an image in the first block and then text in the second.
   
   
   
   Here you can see the block types selected before the media and text is placed.
   
   
5. Add the image to the left column, then add text to the right column.
   
6. When you’re done placing your column content in columns, then click on Save Draft, Publish, or Update to save your work.

There are many ways to use the column to help you layout either your front page, templates, or post/page content. The column will automatically size itself depending on what you are adding.

Options for the Column Block

There are several settings in the toolbar and options in the block properties located in the right column of the editor. Click on the column to bring up the column toolbar. If you have trouble selecting the column, then click on list view in the toolbar at the top left of the editor.

When you add a column block you are creating a parent column, and then columns that hold the content. These are the child columns that have different toolbars. The screenshot above shows a parent column toolbar.

	This option allows you to position the column with drag and drop, or by using the up and down arrows.
	Although this option is labeled as “alignment”, it allows you to change the width to none, wide width, or full width
	Change vertical alignment to top, middle, or bottom

The child column toolbar will look like this and have only two options:

	Change the position of the column with drag and drop or use the arrows to move left or right
	Change vertical alignment to top, middle, or bottom.

The Column block properties in the right column include:

• Columns – allows you to increase the number of columns using a slider or typing in a number.
  
  Stack on mobile option – slider enables you to stack the column when you’re viewing on a mobile device
  
• Color – allows you to set the text or background color.
  
• Dimensions – allows you to set the padding separating the content from the edges of the column
  
• Border – allows a border to be placed around the content of the column. You can also change the style, color, and radius of the border.
  
  The Radius can be adjusted with a slider or directly with a value. Increasing the value manually. This option changes the shape of the border so that it becomes round.

Click on the link to our other WordPress Full Site Editing tutorials.

Looking for more guides? We have over 400 WordPress How To Articles to help you!

The row and stack blocks are important design elements that can be interchangeably used for both the site and template editor and page or post editor in the WordPress Full Site Editing system.

Rows allow you to group blocks horizontally. This is similar to using the columns block but without the automatic size adjustment to the column. You may use this for a variety of reasons in either your templates or content posts/pages.

Stacks allow you to group blocks vertically. Stacks and rows allow you to group and organize various types of content so that you can present it to your viewer.

This tutorial will walk you through how to use each option in the editor and describe the options provided with the block.

Note that we are using WordPress version 6.0 and the Twenty Twenty-two theme for this tutorial.

• Using the Row or Stack Block
• Options and Settings for the Row or Stack Block

Using the Row or Stack Block

Using a row or stack is very simple. You just add the design block before your group of blocks that you’re going to set up as a row or stack.

1. Log in to the WordPress Administrator Dashboard.
2. Create a new post, page, template, or template part; or edit an existing one.
3. To add a row block, click on the + sign to add a block or toggle the block inserter (blue button in the top left corner).
4. Type “row” in the search field, or scroll to the Design section and select row.
5. The row block will be added. To add blocks in your row, click on the + sign in the first block, then select the block type you want to add.
   
   
   
6. Continue adding blocks by clicking on the plus sign in the row. You can see the + sign in the screenshot below. You can also click on the 3-vertical dots in the list view after the first block, and select Insert after to add a block in that row.
   
   
   
   
7. Click on the save options in the top right corner of your editor. The site editor will ask you to confirm what you’re saving. Simply click on the blue Save button again to confirm. The post editor will give you the option of Save Draft, Publish, or Update.

To see an example of a row (or stack) and how the blocks look after they’re added, it’s best to use the List View option in the top left corner of the editor. That way you can see the blocks and how they are organized. Here’s an example:

In the screenshot above you can see the row block and then a set of images after it. You can see the effect of using the row with the images. This is one way you can use the row block.

Adding a Stack

The steps for adding a stack are the same as above but the main difference is that you’re adding a stack instead of a row.

1. When you add a stack, you’ll see the empty stack block, like the screenshot below. Click on the + sign to add a block.
   
   
   
2. Open the list view option in the top left corner of the editor.
   
   
   
   In this example, I will add a paragraph, then paste some text into it. It will look like the screenshot above. Note that when you place stacks of text, it’s sometimes difficult to tell the stack apart from other text blocks that may be a part of your post.
   
   The list view option allows you to see the paragraph blocks and how they’re grouped. Stack blocks are grouped under the stack.
   
   You can also change the color of the font and the size of the font if you wish to make the blocks easier to organize when they’re in a stack.
   
3. To add a block to a stack, go into the list view and click on Stack.
   
   
   
   You will see the stack outlined in the editor and the + sign in the bottom right-hand corner. You can also select the 3-vertical dot menus in either the list view or the editor to add a block after the one you just added.
   
4. Click on Update, Save Draft, or Publish in order to save your work when you’re finished adding your content to the stacks.

Options and Settings for the Row or Stack Block

To see the row/stack toolbar, click on the row or stack. There are also block properties that can be seen in the column on the right side of the screen. Each option from the toolbar and properties column is described below.

Toolbar Options

	Position row with drag and drop or up and down arrows
	Justify items left, center, right, or have space between items
	Vertical alignment to top, middle, or bottom. Not available in stack block.
	Labeled as “alignment” but sets width as none, wide (max 1000 px), or full width

Block Properties

	Allows to select Row, stack, or create a group of blocks.
	Justification – allows you to set the justification and orientation of the items in the row or stack.

Block Orientation – A row and stack block is basically the same block and is determined simply by the orientation of the blocks. There is an orientation option in the block properties that will change the row to a stack or vice versa depending on its position.

Allow to wrap to multiple lines – Option enabled by the slider to allow for text wrapping in the row. The text wrap crosses the different blocks in the row.

	Color – This option allows you to set the color for the text and/or background in the row/stack.
	Typography – This option allows you to set the size of the type used in the row
	Dimensions – Set the padding above the row and set the spacing between the rows
	Border – The border section allows you to set a border line around the row. You can set the color, width, and shape (using the radius option)

The settings for the stack block are virtually the same as the row block. The main difference is the vertical alignment option in the layout justification.

Learn more about using the WordPress Full Site Editing system through the InMotion Hosting Support Center.

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The Search block is a widget used to search the published content of your WordPress site. This tutorial will show you how to use the search block in the WordPress Full Site Editing (FSE) system. We will also provide some background information on the block and how it works with your WordPress site.

• How to Use the Search Block
• Information on Using the Search Block

This tutorial uses WordPress version 6.0 and the Twenty Twenty-two theme.

How to Use the Search Block

The search block can be used in the site editor or the post/page editor for your content. Using it on your home page, header, or footer of your site provides search functionality throughout your website. Searches will bring up all instances of the search term from your published content.

You will need to be logged into the WordPress Administrator Dashboard as an Administrator before following any of the steps below.

Site Editor – Templates or Template Parts

In order to add the block through your site editor follow these directions:

1. In the main menu, click on Appearance, then click on Editor.
   
   
   
2. You will need to decide where to place the Search option. For this tutorial, we will show you how to add it to the header. Click on the WordPress logo in the top left corner.
   
   
   
3. Click on Template Parts. Since we are adding the search block to the header, we will need to edit the header of the theme.
   
   
   
   Depending on the theme that you’re using, you may see more than one header. If you’re using the other headers, then you will need to edit them all in order to add the search option.
   
4. Click on the header that you wish to edit. Click on the template part title to open it in the editor.
   
   
   
5. Click on list view in the top menu bar (it looks like 3 staggered horizontal lines on top of each other).
6. The list view allows you to accurately determine where you want to place the search block. Select a location, then click on the + sign(Toggle Block Inserter) in the top left corner.
7. In the search field, type “search”. Click on the search block when you see it. The search block will be added.
   
   
   
8. If it’s not in the right spot, you can easily re-position it using your mouse to drag and drop it or click on the up or down arrows to move it. Make sure it’s in the right spot, then go to the next step.
   
   
   
9. Click on the blue Save button in the top right corner. You will be asked to confirm that you’re saving the header and the Header Template part that you selected earlier. Click on Save again to confirm.

Post or Page Editor

The search block can also be used in a post or page that is displaying content on your WordPress site. Typically, if you have a large post or multiple images that you want your viewer to be able to search when viewing that page or post, then you can add the search block in order to make it easier for the viewer to find specific content.

1. Open a new or existing post (or page).
2. Select the area where you want to add the search block. You can also turn on list view to more accurately place the block if you have existing content.
   
   
   
   
3. In list view, click on a block adjacent to where you will place the search block. Click on the 3-vertical menu, then select to insert the block before or after the block that you’re on.
   
   
   
4. Click on the Add block (the + sign). Type “search” in the search field. This will bring up the search block. Click on it to select it.
   
   
   
   If the block is not in the correct position, remember that you can always easily move the block using the drag and drop option or the positioning arrows on the block toolbar.
   
5. Once the block is in the proper place and set up the way you want it, click on Save Draft, Update, or Publish in order to save your post or page.

Search Block Options

The search block has a number of options that you can select from the toolbar and from the block options at the right of the page. We’ll cover each option below. To bring up the toolbar, click on the block.

Toolbar options specific to the search block

	These two options allow you to move the toolbar by dragging and dropping or using the up and down arrows to position it
	Alignment options – none, left, center, or right
	Toggle the Search label above the search box (off or on)
	Search button position – outside, inside, or no button
	Toggle icon or text for the search button

Search Instruction Text

When you’re editing the search block or just adding the search block, you have the option to add instructional text where you see “Optional placeholder…“

You can type in your own instructions. For example, “Type your search text here.”

In addition to the toolbar settings, the block has properties that affect how the search block will appear. These properties include:

• Display Settings -you can select a width in pixels, or use percentages to determine how wide the block will appear.
  
• Color – Here you can set the color for the text or background in the Search block. There are no colors not selected by default. Note that this option may be determined by the theme that you use.
  
• Border Width – This determines the width of the border around the search field.
  
• Border Color – This determines the color of the border around the search field. This option may be determined by the theme you are using.
  
• Border Radius – This determines the shape of the border and the button used by the search block. The maximum value makes the search field and button into pill shapes. Size can be set by pixels or using the slider.

Information on Using the Search Block

The WordPress Full Site Editing System (FSE) uses many blocks that were developed as a result of moving to the Gutenberg system for content development. Some of these blocks were originally widgets in the older versions of WordPress. The search block is one of the widgets that were moved into the blocks of the WordPress visual editor. Though, it is still categorized in the blocks as a widget.

The search block is essential for your WordPress site because it allows visitors to find specific content. The search looks through all of your published content. It can find specific text in a published post, or even alt text that you may have assigned to a file in your media library.

The search block provides a powerful tool to find content that you may not have categorized or tagged. However, although this tool provides that functionality for your users, it is still very important to develop a system in how you use categories and tags that make up your published content. Using well-ordered categories and tags will help with your search engine optimization by providing order to your content so that search engines can more easily index your site.

The search block is a potent tool that enables your users to make more use of the content you provide on your WordPress site. Go to our InMotion Support Center to learn more about the WordPress Full Site Editing (FSE) system.

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International SEO is the process of optimizing your website for different countries and languages.

It can improve your website’s organic presence in international markets and help you get your products, content, and services in front of a global audience.

In this article, we will introduce you to international SEO, explain its impact on your website, and outline some international SEO best practices to help you take your company global. 

• What is International SEO?
• Why is International SEO Important?
• Types of International Websites
• International SEO Best Practices

What is International SEO?

International SEO is the process of optimizing your website so that Google and other search engines know precisely what countries you want to target and which languages are used for your business.

It incorporates many standard SEO best practices but focuses on targeting different audiences across diverse geographic regions.

The goal of international SEO is to create a better experience for all of your international visitors by making sure they see content that is relevant to them and in their native language. 

Why is International SEO Important?

Not all websites need to be optimized for international audiences.

However, if you know that a decent amount of your visitors are coming from different countries, then international SEO can do a lot to improve your reach. 

When it comes to SEO, one of the most important parts is being able to match user search intent. Google automatically interprets search intent and shows users the search results that align with their intent, with locality being built into those results.

If you are working with an international audience or customer base, your website can be much more effective when it is optimized for your users’ specific languages and the countries they come from.

Types of International Websites

When it comes to international websites, there are two primary kinds of websites: multilingual and multi-regional.

Let’s take a look at what differentiates the two types of websites:

• Multilingual: Any website that offers content in more than one language. As an example, we will use a Canadian business that has both English and French versions of its site. In this case, Google Search will attempt to find only pages that match the language of the searcher.
• Multi-regional: Any website that explicitly targets users in different countries. For example, say there is a product manufacturer that ships to both Mexico and the United States. For instances like this, Google Search will aim to find the right local page for the searcher.

Of note, It is possible for some sites to be both multi-regional and multilingual. An example of this could be a site that might have different versions for the USA and for Canada and both French and English versions of the Canadian content.

International SEO Best Practices

Now that you know what international SEO is and how it can impact your business, let’s take a look at some international SEO best practices.

URL Structure for International Sites

When it comes to using a website to target particular countries, there are a few different URL structures that webmasters can utilize to accomplish that goal.

Google suggests that you consider using a URL structure that makes it easy to geotarget your site, or parts of it, to different regions.

Here is a breakdown of the options available for using locale-specific URLs:

• ccTLD: Country-code top-level domain names are two-letter domains that are tied to a specific country and provide a strong signal to both users and search engines that your site is explicitly intended for a certain country. Example: yourbusiness.us, yourbusiness.uk
• gTLD: Generic top-level domains are three or more letter domains that tell search engines not to restrict results based on a region, but they may result in a loss of traffic because many sites prefer ccTLDs. Example: yourbusiness.com
• Subdomain: Subdomains can be used in order to combine aspects of ccTLDs and gTLDs. Doing this can offer you the advantage of using a country code as a gTLD. Example: uk.yourbusiness.com
• Subdirectory: Subdirectories can also be used to change the location of the country code. Example: yourbusiness.com/uk
• gTLG with language parameters: This option uses a general TLD, but is targeted at speakers of a specific language by utilizing a URL parameter. Example: yourbusiness.com/?lang=en-us
• Different domain: Using a different domain means that your international content will be placed on its own separate root domain from your non-international site. Example: yourbusinessussite.com

URLs are interpreted differently depending on which search engine you use, and each of the above URL structures comes with its own pros and cons. Before you decide on a URL structure, it’s worth taking a closer look at each to see which one is best for your needs. 

Use Language-Targeting 

Another way to optimize your website for international SEO is to language target your website. 

You can do this by using a hreflang tag to show Google and other search engines which languages your website is designed to handle. 

These HTML attributes tell Google which geographic area to serve a webpage to and what language that page should be served in. 

For example, the following hreflang tag lets Google knows there’s an alternative page available in Italian, allowing Google to rank the correct page:

<link rel=”alternate” href=”http:/yourbusiness.com/it” hreflang=”it-it”/>

Translate Content Carefully

If you want to take international SEO seriously, try to avoid machine translations. While it may seem like a quick and easy option to translate a page, machine translations are still not accurate enough to live up to Google’s standards. 

That means you will want to take the time to go through all the elements of your website to ensure they are translated correctly. While this obviously applies to your content, it also applies to things like time zones, currency, and contact info such as addresses and phone numbers. 

When you make the effort to do this, you tell searchers that they are in the right place and increase the likelihood that they will have a positive experience on your site. 

Give Users Options

The whole point of international SEO is to serve up content that matches local user expectations, but that is not to say you should automatically make that decision for your users. 

While it might seem like a good idea to automatically redirect a user to a different language based on the location of their IP address, this can actually do more harm than good.

In fact, automatic redirections can actually prevent users (and search engines) from viewing all the versions of your site.

Not everyone speaks the same language that is associated with their location, so you should give your users the option to choose a different language version of a page instead of automatically redirecting them.

International SEO isn’t something that every business needs, but it can be beneficial for businesses with a large number of customers from another county or who speak another language.

If you know you have that type of market, then optimizing your site for your international customers can give you a boost in the global rankings. 

Want to keep learning? Check out Image SEO: 11 Tips to Optimize Images for Search Engines.

Topics include

• Creating an Event
• Creating an Event via Gmail

Creating an Event

There are two primary ways to create new events on Google Calendar. The first is by directly clicking on the date you want to schedule an event for:

1. First, open Google Calendar.
2. Next, click on an empty date in the calendar.
3. The system will prompt you to input a title and details about the event.
4. Once done, click Save.

You can also create events by clicking on the Create button at the top of the calendar:

1. Open Google Calendar.
2. At the top left of the calendar click Create +.
3. Input a title for the event as well as event details.
4. Once done, click Save.

Creating an Event via Gmail

One of the most convenient features of Google Calendar is integration with Gmail. This integration allows you to easily convert email reminders for events and meetings into Google Calendar entries.

1. First, log into your Gmail account.
2. Next, locate a message containing event planning details such as time, date, and location.
3. Once you have selected a message, click More > Create Event at the top of the page.
4. An event will be created automatically using the event title and details from the email message itself. At this point feel free to change any details such as event time and date before completing the process.
5. Once done, click Save.

Next Steps

To help you further organize your Google Workspace teams, consider setting up organizational units. If you need help managing your physical resources such as meeting rooms and teleconferencing equipment, you may want to set up building management.

CyberPanel FTP services provide an easy method for uploading and downloading files between a web server. Less technical users prefer it because they can customize their desktop FTP software (or browser extension) and avoid the command-line interface (CLI). That same FTP application can be used to manage multiple servers instead of the user having to learn how to navigate multiple web apps and hosting panels. Sometimes, only FTP access to a single sub-directory is granted to web developers for security purposes.

Below we’ll cover how to manage FTP accounts and choose the right FTP software for you.

• Create CyberPanel FTP Accounts
  • Manage FTP User Passwords
  • Delete FTP Accounts
• Login with FTP
  • Software for FTP CyberPanel Connection
  • CyberPanel FTP Not Working

Create CyberPanel FTP Accounts

This section covers creating FTP accounts in CyberPanel (separate from CyberPanel users) as an admin user.

1. Log into CyberPanel.
2. Ensure Pure-FTPd is enabled in Manage Services > Manage FTP.
3. Ensure FTP status is set to On.
4. Select FTP > Create FTP Account.
5. Select a CyberPanel website from the drop-down menu.
6. Select Create FTP to display additional options.
7. Type a username suffix. The full username will show on the right.

   

8. Type a strong password.
9. Set a relative path if you wish to restrict the FTP user to a specific subdirectory (e.g. a multimedia subdirectory like “wp-content/uploads” for WordPress).
10. Select Create FTP.
11. Refresh (F5) the page if you need to create additional FTP accounts.

We recommend storing online user credentials in a password manager such as KeePass.

Manage FTP User Passwords

FTP account passwords can be reset at any time with the click of a button.

1. On the left, select FTP > List FTP Accounts.
2. Select a domain from the drop-down menu.
3. Select the Change button to reset FTP user passwords.

   

4. Type a new password in the text box above.
5. Select Change Password.

Delete FTP Accounts

This section covers the simple steps to delete a FTP account.

1. Select FTP > Delete FTP Accounts.
2. Select a CyberPanel domain.
3. Select a FTP account to remove.
4. Select Delete FTP Account.

Login with FTP

FTP applications generally require the same steps:

1. Use your CyberPanel server hostname as the host (or hostname).
2. Type your FTP username (e.g. admin_user1).
3. Type the FTP user password.
4. Specify the CyberPanel FTP port as “21” if necessary.

Software for FTP CyberPanel Connection

There are many free FTP clients available for every desktop operating system. Listed below are the most popular desktop FTP clients along with pros and cons to each.

Filezilla is the most popular FTP client across Windows, macOS, Linux, and even BSD. The user interface is straightforward. Simply type in FTP user credentials at the top and you’ll have split-screen file explorers to navigate your PC and web server in the same window. You’ll need to edit the settings for more secure FTP connections.

Cyberduck went from being a top macOS FTP client to also supporting Windows. Its FTP security is stronger by default. It lacks the split-screen file manager, though. It also isn’t great for transferring multiple files at once and larger files.

Notepad++ is a code editor that can connect to FTP to edit server files. This negates the need to download a file, edit it from your PC, and then upload the updated file.

CyberPanel FTP Not Working

You can troubleshoot FTP connections from Logs > View FTP Logs.

It shows the last 50 lines and has options to refresh and clear the log.

Learn more about how to manage your CyberPanel VPS.