In this issue, we will cover the latest features from popular WordPress plugins, plus a sneak peek at the new default WordPress theme. We also look at industry changes, including Instagram’s API update and more.

Now, let’s take a look at the key highlights from this month’s WordPress news.

MonsterInsights Launches Conversations AI: A Game-Changer in Website Analytics and Insights

MonsterInsights has introduced Conversations AI, a new feature designed to make website analytics more interactive and user-friendly.

This tool aims to simplify the process of understanding website traffic data. Instead of navigating through complex analytics reports, users can just ask specific questions, and the AI chatbot will respond.

For instance, you could ask, “Which pages had the most traffic last week?” or “How did my latest blog post perform?” The AI responds with clear, actionable information, making it easier for users to gain insights without needing advanced analytics skills.

This feature could be particularly useful for site owners who need straightforward answers about their website’s traffic without digging into detailed reports.

In a post on X, Syed Balkhi, CEO of MonsterInsights and WPBeginner, also mentioned that it could be helpful for users who are dreading the migration to the new Google Analytics 4 (GA4).

This feature is available for all MonsterInsights Pro users. Users of the free MonsterInsights lite plugin will need to upgrade to a paid plan to unlock it.

First Look at Twenty Twenty-Five: The Upcoming New Default Theme

It’s a long-standing tradition in the WordPress community to release a new default theme each year, typically named after the year. Following this pattern, WordPress is set to introduce Twenty Twenty-Five as the default theme for the upcoming WordPress 6.7 release.

The theme’s design philosophy is based on the idea that “Simple things should be easy and intuitive, and complex things possible.”

It features a simple, minimalistic design foundation, which is capable of more complex layouts and design choices as needed.

It will include several style variations, beautiful patterns, and ready-to-use templates, allowing users to customize it for different website needs.

One distinctive feature of Twenty Twenty-Five is its focus on the blog layout as the default view, setting it apart from recent default themes.

This design choice highlights the theme’s emphasis on content, making it ideal for bloggers while still offering the flexibility needed for other website types.

Twenty Twenty-Five is designed with performance and accessibility in mind. It performs well across various devices and is easy for all users to navigate. Customization is also a key focus, allowing users to adjust colors, fonts, and layouts without needing coding knowledge.

As we approach the release of WordPress 6.7, Twenty Twenty-Five may change a bit from its earlier preview. However, the main design scheme will remain the same.

WPForms Introduces Conditional Logic for Layout Fields

WPForms has introduced conditional logic for layout fields. It enables users to apply smart conditional logic across entire sections of a form rather than just individual fields.

This makes form creation faster and more intuitive, especially for complex forms that require dynamic content based on user input.

The layout field was already known for its flexibility in arranging form elements in predefined columns. Now, it also supports conditional logic for entire blocks of fields within those layouts.

This means you can easily create forms that adapt in real-time, showing or hiding sections based on user selections—all with just a few clicks.

In addition to this, WPForms has added a single-column layout option. This gives users more control over their form designs while maintaining the ease of use that WPForms is known for.

With this update, WPForms has also strengthened its anti-spam measures, ensuring that forms remain secure and free from unwanted submissions.

Instagram Shutting Down Basic Display API: What It Means for Your Website

Instagram has decided to shut down its Basic Display API in favor of the newer Instagram Graph API. The API was used by several WordPress social media plugins to fetch and display Instagram feeds.

This means that if your website was connected to Instagram using the Basic Display API, it will stop displaying Instagram feeds in the next quarter (around October-November 2024).

The folks at Smash Balloon, makers of the popular Instagram feed plugin, announced their plans for the upcoming changes in a recent blog post.

Craig Schlegel, Smash Balloon’s general manager, assured users that their feeds will continue working until the shutdown takes effect. He urged users to switch by reconnecting the plugin to the new API before the October-November deadline.

After the deadline, if users don’t make the switch, the plugin will continue showing the last cached version of their feed. However, it will be unable to display new content.

If your website relies on Instagram content, taking action before the shutdown is crucial to ensure your Instagram feed is working.

Formidable Forms Introduces AI Form Builder

Formidable Forms has launched a new AI Form Builder that makes it easy to create forms by using artificial intelligence. This tool aims to help users generate complex forms quickly and efficiently, even without extensive technical knowledge.

Users can type details about the form they want to make in plain language, and the AI will generate the required form fields.

The AI add-on streamlines the process by suggesting form fields and layouts based on user goals.

Formidable Forms is known for its advanced WordPress form builder. Users making complex forms, such as calculators or directories, may find the AI form builder helpful.

The AI Form Builder add-on requires a Formidable Forms Pro ‘Business’ plan. People using the free version or Basic / Plus plans will need to upgrade to access the add-on.

New WPCode Release: More Conditional Logic and Auto-Insert Locations

WPCode has released a significant update that introduces extended conditional logic and more auto-insert location options for WordPress users.

These new features aim to give users more control over their code snippets by providing them with more dynamic ways to insert them.

There are two new conditional logic rules in addition to the ones that the plugin already had:

• Show/Hide code snippet by author
• Show/Hide code snippet by page template

This is particularly useful for users who need to tailor their site’s behavior based on specific conditions or user actions.

In addition to the improved conditional logic, WPCode has expanded the auto-insert location options.

Users can now insert code snippets in more specific areas of their site, such as in the middle of the content, after a certain number of words, or after a specific % of the content.

According to the WPCode team, these new locations will allow users to add code for various use cases, such as Google AdSense code, special offer banners, related posts, and more.

Hostinger Celebrated the 3 Million Customers Milestone

Hostinger has reached a significant milestone, celebrating 3 million customers worldwide. This achievement marks a major moment in the company’s growth.

Reflecting on this achievement, Daugirdas Jankus, CEO of Hostinger, said, “A global trend where more people are interested in starting their own businesses and seeking greater flexibility and independence is becoming more visible.”

Since its beginnings, Hostinger has focused on offering high-quality hosting solutions that cater to a diverse range of users. These include everyone from beginners creating their first WordPress website to established businesses looking to scale their online presence.

The company credits its success to ongoing innovation, great customer support, and a user-friendly platform for building and managing websites.

As part of this milestone celebration, Hostinger has shared stories of its journey and the various improvements it has made over the years. These include the expansion of its global data centers and the enhancement of its customer service offerings.

Related: Hostinger review (Pros and cons with performance tests)

In Other News:

• Charitable, WPForms, and Pressable have all launched redesigned websites, focusing on improved user experience and modern aesthetics.
• A minor update to WordPress 6.6, version 6.6.1, has been released to address several bugs and improve overall stability. Users are encouraged to update their sites to take advantage of these fixes.
• Sugar Calendar adds support for Elementor widgets, making it easy to use the powerful event calendar plugin with Elementor page builder. Try the free version today.
• WordPress.com has partnered with Perplexity AI, which enables WordPress.com sites to appear in the Perplexity answer engine’s ‘discover more’ feature. Users can also opt out if they don’t want to share their content.
• WordPress 6.7 will ship with automatic HEIC to JPEG conversion.
• MemberPress, the leading WordPress membership and LMS plugin, has added Assignment and Gradebook features for MemberPress Courses. This is going to be a game-changer for the LMS market.
• WordCamp US is all set and ready to go! Mark your calendars for September 17-20, 2024. If you haven’t secured your spot yet, tickets are still available. Grab yours before they’re gone!
• Uncanny Automator, the popular no-code automation tool for WordPress, added multiple new integrations for FluentBooking, Keap, and Ontraport, along with adding a new feature called Token Loop. This is one of the MUST-HAVE plugins to help you save time and costs. It’s basically Zapier for WordPress without the high costs. Give the free version a try.
• WordPress.com launched Write Brief, an AI-powered writing assistant.
• WordPress.org added support for Offline Mode and PWA for WordPress Playground.

New Plugins Launched:

• Super Rollback is a new WordPress plugin for rolling back plugins and core updates.
• AI Text to Speech allows you to create an AI-generated audio version of your posts using OpenAI’s Text to Speech API.
• Birthday for WooCommerce is a free plugin that adds a birthday field to the checkout form in WooCommerce. This allows store owners to wish customers happy birthday and send them special offers.
• ProjectPages allows you to easily showcase a project portfolio on your website.

That brings us to the end of this edition of WPBeginner Spotlight.

We’re eager to hear your feedback on how we can improve this column. If you have any newsworthy items you’d like us to feature next month, please share them with us.

We welcome your suggestions, so feel free to leave a comment below or send us your ideas for future editions.

We’ll return next month with more WordPress news and updates. Thank you for being part of our community!

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

The post WordPress News Aug 2024: AI Features, New Default Theme & More first appeared on WPBeginner.

This month’s news also includes significant acquisitions, such as Awesome Motive’s acquisition of BuddyBoss and WP Engine’s acquisition of NitroPack.

Let’s dive into these updates and share key insights from this month’s WordPress news.

WordPress 6.6 Was Released With Exciting New Features

WordPress 6.6 is finally here, with new features and improvements to enhance your website-building experience. This update focuses on making your site editing smoother and faster.

The new Grid block allows you to create complex grid layouts easily, offering better control over your content design. You can adjust column widths, apply custom styling, and drag items across columns.

The update also introduces Section Styles and Mix and Match Style Variations. These features let you apply unique styles to different sections and combine design elements effortlessly.

We are particularly excited about the automatic rollback for the plugin updates feature. In our experience, many users were reluctant to turn on automatic updates because they were afraid of broken updates.

With 6.6, if an auto-update breaks your site, then WordPress will revert to the previous stable version. This ensures your site remains functional and secure.

Lastly, WordPress 6.6 includes performance improvements, better accessibility, and enhanced support for internationalization.

For a detailed walkthrough, you can see our WordPress 6.6 release post or the official WordPress 6.6 Field Guide.

BuddyBoss Joins Awesome Motive Family

BuddyBoss, a leading platform for building online communities and membership sites, has joined the Awesome Motive family of products.

This acquisition brings together two powerhouses in the WordPress ecosystem, promising to deliver even more value and innovation to users.

BuddyBoss is known for its powerful features, which allow users to easily create social networks and build online communities. With this acquisition, Awesome Motive plans to enhance BuddyBoss’s capabilities for even better integration with popular WordPress plugins and tools.

Syed Balkhi, CEO of Awesome Motive and WPBeginner, shared his excitement about the acquisition in the announcement post:

As a business owner, I have always believed that having control over your content and distribution is key to long-term success. This is why I believe adding a private community with premium content and a branded mobile app is going to help make your business more resilient in the long-term.

Syed Balkhi, CEO of Awesome Motive

This move is part of Awesome Motive’s ongoing strategy to expand its portfolio of products and services to offer comprehensive solutions to WordPress users.

WPBeginner Turned 15 Years Old

This month, we are celebrating WPBeginner’s 15th anniversary! Founded in 2009 by Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner has grown into the largest free WordPress resource site for beginners.

Over the past 15 years, we’ve helped millions of users with tutorials, guides, and resources to build and improve their WordPress websites.

To celebrate the milestone, we ran a giveaway ($50,000 in prizes) and offered special discounts.

The giveaway is over and we’re currently selecting the winners. If you’re selected, you should have already received an email about it.

WPCode Launches Game-Changing AI-Powered Code Snippet Generator

WPCode, the best WordPress code snippet plugin, has launched a groundbreaking tool: WPCode AI.

WPCode AI lets you generate and modify code snippets with AI. All you have to do is describe what you want your snippet to do in plain English.

It automatically generates the code snippet so you can implement an additional feature to your site without coding yourself.

WPCode AI comes in handy if you’re looking to add custom functionality, improve site navigation, or integrate new features. It turns your commands into optimized, functional code in seconds.

WPCode AI integrates seamlessly with its extensive library of over 1,400 snippets. It also supports advanced features like smart conditional logic and auto-insert locations.

While WPCode AI is a premium feature, the free WPCode lite plugin comes with essential features to manage code snippets in WordPress.

Solid Backups Ends Support for Google Drive Backups

Solid Backups has announced that it will no longer support backups to Google Drive. This change affects all users using Google Drive as their main backup destination.

The decision to discontinue support is due to ongoing issues with integration and reliability concerns.

Solid Backups (formerly BackupBuddy) has been around for a long time. However, its aging code base would require a lot of development resources to keep up with Google’s API changes.

Users are advised to switch to alternative backup destinations supported by Solid Backups, like Dropbox, Amazon S3, or local storage options.

MemberPress Released Social Login Addon

MemberPress has launched a new Social Login addon. It aims to simplify the login process for users by allowing them to log in to WordPress membership sites using their social media accounts.

This add-on was needed due to the growing demand for more convenient login options. Users often find it challenging to remember passwords, fill out login forms, or recover lost passwords, leading to frustration.

In some cases, these difficulties can even cause users to abandon the signup process altogether.

MemberPress aims to help site owners retain and engage their members by allowing them to use their existing social media credentials.

Social logins help improve the user experience and, by eliminating barriers to entry, can lead to higher membership sign-ups and engagement.

This feature supports popular networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google, and WordPress.com and is available to MemberPress Pro users.

WP Engine Acquires NitroPack to Boost Site Performance

WP Engine has acquired NitroPack, an all-in-one SaaS solution for improving website speed and performance metrics, including Google’s Core Web Vitals.

NitroPack, used by over 219,000 websites, is known for its intuitive automation, which enhances page load speed with little to no technical expertise required.

This acquisition strengthens WP Engine’s suite of web technologies, adding more power and flexibility for customers.

Heather Brunner, WP Engine’s Chairwoman and CEO, highlighted that “NitroPack’s integration will replace multiple optimization tools with a single powerful solution, driving significant performance improvements.”

The acquisition comes after the successful introduction of Page Speed Boost. This feature uses NitroPack’s technology and has already shown significant improvements in Core Web Vitals scores for WP Engine customers.

In Other News

• MonsterInsights launched the Date Comparisons feature to provide deeper insights into your website’s performance. It allows users to compare their Google Analytics data across different time periods to track marketing campaigns, seasonal trends, and website updates.
• WordPress Performance Team released the Enhanced Responsive Images plugin. It automatically optimizes image sizes for faster loading times, improving overall site performance.
• Google URL shortener goo.gl will stop working on August 25th. We recommend using the free Pretty Links plugin to build your own custom link shortener using WordPress.
• Uncanny Automator 5.9 now lets you connect your WordPress site with Notion, Campaign Monitor, and the Kadence theme. Uncanny Automator is the #1 WordPress no-code automation tool. Try the free version here.
• Mark Ashton launched Vendbase, a new platform designed to make WooCommerce store management easier through advanced data visualization, streamlined management tools, and real-time analytics.
• Kestrel Acquires CheckoutWC: This acquisition aims to improve the checkout experience for WooCommerce stores by integrating Kestrel’s innovative features.
• InstaWP Adds Support for the Duplicator Plugin: This update allows users to easily clone and migrate their WordPress sites using the Duplicator plugin.
• WP Mail SMTP launched SMTP2Go integration. The most powerful WordPress SMTP plugin continues to get better by ensuring that your WordPress emails are always delivered to users’ inboxes.
• WPExperts Acquires Honeypot for Contact Form 7: This acquisition aims to improve spam protection for Contact Form 7 users.

That wraps up this edition of WPBeginner Spotlight.

We would love to hear your thoughts on how to improve and expand this column. Also, if you have any newsworthy items you’d like to see featured next month, please let us know.

Feel free to send us your suggestions or leave a comment below about what you’d like to see in future editions.

We’ll be back next month with more WordPress news and updates. Thank you for being part of our community!

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

The post WPBeginner Spotlight 02 – Plugin Acquisitions, New Releases + More WordPress News first appeared on WPBeginner.

Most content optimization tools are simply too expensive for small businesses or offer very limited features to their users.

This means that website owners either have to invest hundreds of dollars per month in premium SEO platforms or don’t have the information they need to actually improve their content.

That’s why I asked my team at All in One SEO (AIOSEO) to build an affordable, all-in-one SEO platform for bloggers, marketers, agencies, and small business owners.

Today, I am excited to announce SEOBoost, a powerful and beginner-friendly all-in-one tool for improving your search rankings and getting more organic traffic.

Our goal is to make it easy for you to research, write, and optimize content from a single hub.

Create Detailed Topic Reports and Content Briefs in Just a Few Clicks

Before you can start out-ranking the competition, you will first need to understand what makes their articles work.

This is where SEOBoost’s topic reports come into play.

Just go to Topic Reports and enter a target keyword, region, and language. Once you click the ‘Create Report’ button, SEOBoost will put together a comprehensive topic report in just a few moments.

This report will show you a bunch of different data for the highest-ranking competitor articles, including:

• Average word count
• Readability level
• Keyword frequency
• Images
• Title length
• Outbound links

Plus, this data is grouped in a table so you can easily see the stats of the highest-ranking posts and add their headings directly to your topic brief.

Another handy feature is that SEOBoost grabs the most relevant user questions from social platforms like Reddit and Quora.

This can help you see what regular users are actually looking for and answer those questions in your content.

As you go through the different reports, clicking on the suggested keywords and headings will instantly insert them into your content brief on the right side of the screen.

This makes it super easy to build a content brief without manually adding any content yourself.

Then, jumping to the Content Brief tab in SEOBoost lets you see a complete overview of all the information you’ve added.

Under the ‘SEO Suggestions’ tab, there is also a handy table with SEO recommendations that gives you a quick overview of what your article needs to rank.

Clicking on the ‘Optimize Content’ button will then take you to the content optimization screen.

Optimize Your Content for Better SEO Rankings

SEOBoost makes it extremely easy to optimize your content for your chosen keyword because it automatically pulls all the data from the topic report you created.

Then, you can start writing straight into the editor or paste your content.

On the left, you can see an overview of different scores for your content, while the panel on the right shows you specific errors that you should fix within your content.

For example, SEOBoost might recommend adding missing keywords, increasing the number of words in your title and/or article, or adding headings from your topic brief.

SEOBoost also lets you leave comments within the user interface, which is great for the editors on your content team.

Run Easy-to-Understand Content Audits

Not sure why your content isn’t ranking well on Google? SEOBoost makes this easy with detailed content audits.

All you have to do is go to Content Audits and enter your article’s URL, target keyword, region, and language.

Once you hit ‘Create Report’, SEOBoost will start instantly analyzing your content with the help of AI.

It will then show you a bunch of different reports for how your content compares to top-ranking competitors for word count, readability, title length, and more.

These visual graphs make it very easy to see where you compare to other websites.

All of this data is also highlighted in green, orange, and red so you can easily see where you need to improve.

Wondering which keywords are missing from your content? You can easily see them at the very bottom of the content audit report.

This allows you to find content gaps and better optimize your content for the right search intent.

Easily Collaborate Across Your Content Team

SEOBoost’s content management feature is a huge time-saver for content marketing agencies and bigger teams.

It lets you set up content campaigns that are made up of smaller projects to work on.

Then, you simply need to pick the target keyword for each project, choose a publishing date, and assign it to a writer and reviewer.

This automatically creates a chain of tasks for both the writer and reviewer, from creating a topic report all the way through to approving and publishing the content.

Team members can then quickly see the next task they need to do in their SEOBoost dashboard.

For example, clicking on the task below will take you straight to the interface where you can create a topic report.

Our tool also allows you to upload your own images to a shared media library or pick stock images.

This can make it even faster and easier for your team members to create their content.

All you have to do is go to Content Management » Media Library. From here, you can upload new images or browse the library of stock photos.

Try SEOBoost Today

I am excited about the content optimization features available in SEOBoost, and we are always looking for new ways to improve it.

SEOBoost is already available for all users, so please give it a try and share your thoughts in the comments below. You can also sign up for a 14-day free trial.

We’re truly building something special here. If you have ideas on how we can make SEOBoost more helpful to you, please send us your suggestions.

As always, I want to thank you for your continued support of WPBeginner, and we look forward to continue serving you for years to come.

Yours Truly,

Syed Balkhi
Founder of WPBeginner

The post Introducing SEOBoost by AIOSEO: Content Optimization Made Easy first appeared on WPBeginner.