How to Add a Reading Progress Bar in WordPress Posts

Have you noticed how some popular sites show a reading progress bar indicator at the top of their articles? This little bar shows users how much more of the article is left to scroll and encourages them to continue reading. In this article, we will show you how to add a reading progress bar in WordPress posts.

Why and When You Should Add Reading Progress Bar in WordPress

Users spend only a couple of seconds on a webpage before deciding whether to stay or leave. Keeping users engaged becomes little more challenging if you publish long form articles, as they require users to scroll down.

Some site owners add inline related posts, others use videos or image galleries to keep users on the page.

A reading progress bar adds a little user-interface enhancement that encourages users to scroll down. It also motivates users to finish the article they are reading.

Many popular websites like The Daily Beast, use the reading progress indicators to engage their readers. However, you also need to make sure that the reading progress indicator is subtle and does not ruin user experience on your site.

Having said that, let’s see how you can easily add a reading progress indicator for your WordPress posts.

Video Tutorial

If you don’t like the video or need more instructions, then continue reading.

Adding Reading Progress Bar in WordPress Posts

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Worth The Read plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit Settings » Worth The Read page to setup your progress bar indicator.

First you need to enable the reading progress bar by checking the ‘Enable’ option. After that, you need to select where you want to display the progress bar.

The default option is on the top which is used by most sites. You can change it to display the progress bar on right, left, or bottom of the page.

The plugin allows you to choose the foreground and background colors of the progress bar to match your WordPress theme. The background color is used to fill the empty progress bar and the foreground color will be used to show progress as a user scrolls down.

You can also include comments in the total length of progress bar by checking the include comments option. If you are including comments, then you can also choose a different background color for comments progress area.

Last option on the page allows you to use a transparent background for the progress bar. Checking this option will override background color options and only the foreground color will be displayed as users scroll down an article.

Don’t forget to click on the save changes button to store your settings.

That’s all, you can now visit any single post on your website to see the progress bar in action.

The reading progress bar indicator only works on single posts. Currently it does not support pages and custom post types.

We hope this article helped you add a reading progress bar indicator in WordPress. You may also want to see our list of 10 WordPress plugins that will quickly help you get more traffic.

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

The post How to Add a Reading Progress Bar in WordPress Posts appeared first on WPBeginner.

Who’s Reading This? Tips for New Bloggers Looking to Increase Traffic

alt="Who’s Reading This? Tips for New Bloggers Looking to Increase Traffic" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/writing-a-blog-500x333_c.jpg" />

class="border" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2011/0922-2.jpg" alt="Blogging Guide" width="750" />
Image credit: href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/justonlysteve/2281405824/" target="_blank">JustOnlySteven

When you’re new to the world of blogging, the possibilities seem both endless and exciting.  You eagerly put hours into crafting fresh and entertaining articles.  You spend a good chunk of each day thinking about your blog and carefully putting your thoughts into words.  When you re-read your work after hitting “publish”, you’re proud of what you’ve written.

Unfortunately, you’re the only one reading it.

It can be discouraging and frustrating as a new blogger to see little or no growth in readership.  It’s important to remember that building a loyal audience doesn’t happen overnight!  Try some of these simple and effective ways to increase traffic to your blog.

Keep to a Schedule

This is probably the simplest blogging truth: if you don’t write, then people won’t read.  Choose a blogging schedule – whether you plan on writing daily or weekly – and href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/blogging-tips/10-tips-to-help-you-find-time-to-blog/">stick to it.  Once readers see that they can trust you to keep adding interesting and original content on a regular basis, they will be more open to investing their time in your blog.

Comment on Other People’s Blogs

Blogging is about more than finding a niche; it’s also about building community.  When you read and comment on blogs written by people with similar interests, you’re also sharing your own blog with all of their readers.  Blog owners love receiving comments, and there’s a good chance that they might click on your link and visit your blog.  Even more importantly, everyone who reads through the comments will be exposed to you and your blog.

Remember that commenting is, first and foremost, an opportunity to engage in discussion.  If all you’re trying to do is bring readers to your blog with generic comments like “Great post!” people will see through that and ignore you.  The best comments – both for engaging in discussion and for convincing new readers to click on your link – are the ones that are thoughtful, original and meaningful.  Take the time to really read a blog post and think about how you can contribute before leaving a comment.

Link to Other Blog Posts

Many blog platforms offer the possibility of backtracks or linkbacks.  What this means is that you can write a post on your own blog and link directly to someone else’s related blog post.  Your link will show up under the comments, which could bring new readers to your site.

Even if you’re not using backtracks or linkbacks, linking to another person’s blog can bring that blog’s author to your site.  Most blog authors like to keep an eye on their traffic sources to see where their readers are coming from.  Once someone clicks on the link in your post – or even if you click on it yourself – it will pop up on the other blog owner’s statistics page.

Join Link Parties or Blog Carnivals

Link parties or blog carnivals are special blog posts that aim to bring together bloggers with similar interests.  The host blogger provides a space in their post where other bloggers can add their URLs.  Readers can then visit some or all of the posts in the party to read and comment on other people’s work.  Link parties are a great way to build your blogging community and to get to know other blogs and bloggers.

To find a link party, think about your blog’s focus and then do a quick search online.  “DIY link party”, “recipe link party” or “book review link party” will all bring up links to parties that might be the perfect match for your blog.

Link to Your Blog When Using Social Media

id="floatright">class="alignright" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2011/0922-3.jpg" alt="Blogging Guide" width="235" height="300" />

Quick Round-Up On My Recent Web Reading

alt="Quick Round-Up On My Recent Web Reading" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/reading-500x320_c.jpg" />

class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-7770" alt="reading" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/reading.jpg" width="750" height="481" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/reading.jpg 750w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/reading-300x192.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" />

I have been reading quite a lot these days and I wanted to share some of the good ones in this post. Listed below are some hand-picked articles/blogposts WHSR readers might be interested in. Some of these are sort of old while some are freshly published – nevermind, the important part is that each of these articles comes with information as valuable as gold. I am seeing a very busy days ahead for myself thus I doubt that there will be any updates at WHSR this week.

So in case you are in the mood of reading… have fun clicking these links. :)

On Inspiration

Everyone loves list-post and need some visual inspiration, eh? href="http://www.selected-webdesign.com/" target="_blank">style="text-decoration: underline;">style="text-decoration: underline;">Selected Web Design runs a great gallery of websites at its homepage; and for WP users, here’s some nice WP theme demo published on DesignBeep.com – href="http://designbeep.com/2011/06/21/when-wordpress-and-jquery-plugins-go-together/" target="_blank">style="text-decoration: underline;">When WordPress And jQuery Plugins Go Together.

On Web Marketing

Search Engine Optimization

SEO is not only about links, title text and keyword research. As search and social media converge, “social signals” are playing a more and more important role when it comes to search rankings. This leads us to Moore’s interesting article about href="http://www.fuelyourcreativity.com/leveraging-social-content-for-seo/" target="_blank">style="text-decoration: underline;">How to Leverage Social Content For SEO. Bing maybe href="http://www.infoworld.com/t/search-engines/microsoft-keeps-trying-and-failing-bing-168199" target="_blank">style="text-decoration: underline;">going absolutely nowhere in the near future but it does provide tons of handy tools for webmasters. To leverage these tools, you need href="http://www.seobook.com/bings-webmaster-tools" target="_blank">style="text-decoration: underline;">The Ultimate Guide to Using Bing’s Webmaster Tools.

As a WordPress users, I love learning new tricks and hacks. But we don’t need to do everything by ourselves, right? After all, that’s what Plugin is designed for. I bet you’ll be thrilled with some of the href="http://www.webhostingbreak.com/development/10-great-seo-plugins-for-wordpress/" target="_blank">style="text-decoration: underline;">10 Great SEO Plugins For WordPress listed.

Social Network Marketing

Also, if you are like me, wondering why the heck everyone is talking and blogging and tweeting about Google+, read href="http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2011/08/google-dont-fight-it.html" target="_blank">style="text-decoration: underline;">Google+: Don’t Fight It and href="http://www.webhostingbreak.com/development/10-great-seo-plugins-for-wordpress/" target="_blank">style="text-decoration: underline;">Google+ Has Made Twitter Boring.

On Website/Blog Interactions

Web design is not only about creating beautiful website. Getting the desired result is another important challenge for all web developers. Smashing Magazine has put up yet another a round-up of resources on href="http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/07/22/responsive-web-design-techniques-tools-and-design-strategies/" target="_blank">style="text-decoration: underline;">Responsive Web Design Techniques and Strategies. And also, check out Ailsa’s guide on href="http://sixrevisions.com/content-strategy/website-tone-voice/" target="_blank">style="text-decoration: underline;">How To Develop Your Website’s Tone Of Voice. I just read this earlier and trust me, this lady knows what is she talking about.

On Web Design and Development

Web Design In General

We all have bad habits and make silly mistakes all the time, perhaps it’s time to run a reality check and see if you are doing any of the list of href="http://www.problogdesign.com/general-tips/30-bad-practices-of-web-designers/" target="_blank">style="text-decoration: underline;">30 bad practices of web designers? One-page websites are trending pretty fast recently. I’m not a big fan though; but in case you are making one for yourself (or your client), Kendra’s href="http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2011/07/6-tips-to-create-better-one-page-websites/" target="_blank">style="text-decoration: underline;">6 Tips To Create Better One-page Websites is a must read.

And, for list lovers, here’s another round-up of href="http://www.webhostingdeals.org/webdevelopmentmarketing/18-free-online-sources-to-learn-web-design" target="_blank">style="text-decoration: underline;">18 Free Online Resources In Web Design.

HTML 5 and CSS

You can’t learn HTML 5 via just a few blogpost (you need a book and some practice the least) but Steven’s recent post would be a very good read if you wish to href="http://www.vanseodesign.com/web-design/html5-content-models/" target="_blank">style="text-decoration: underline;">Understand HTML5 Content Model. Seriously, HTML 5 is not from Mars. In case you think otherwise, Mark’s href="http://www.webdesignermag.co.uk/tutorials/create-a-basic-html5-page/" target="_blank">style="text-decoration: underline;">Create A Basic HTML 5 Page With The New Layout Tags should be your next stop. ;) There’s also a great list of learning sources I compiled earlier in href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/featured-articles/learn-html5-10-must-read-lessons/" target="_blank">style="text-decoration: underline;">Learn HTML 5 – I bet you’ll love them! Further on that, newbies might also want to check out href="http://css-tricks.com/13317-little-css-stuff-newcomers-get-confused-about/" target="_blank">style="text-decoration: underline;">Little CSS Stuff Newcomers Get Confused About. It’s a very well-written article by Chris that helps you avoid some common mistakes before it happens.

Website Enhancement

Do you ever know web files are related to your website as well? (What?!) Yeah I know, I was as confused as you now when I first read href="http://sixrevisions.com/web-development/5-little-known-web-files-that-can-enhance-your-website/" target="_blank">style="text-decoration: underline;">5 Little-Known Web Files That Can Enhance Your Website. It’s an eye-opening reading and I love it very much to be honest.

On Web Hosting

Web Hosting Basics

Confused with domain names and web hosting? James’s href="http://www.10-cheapwebhosting.com/Domain-Hosting.php" target="_blank">style="text-decoration: underline;">Domain Hosting Explained should be your next stop then. Real case examples are given to explain the differences between domain names and web hosting server – you should be able to understand every necessary key point upon finish reading it.

Web Host Shopping

And hey, last but not least, I had hours of research and wrote a very detailed guide on href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/featured-articles/ultimate-cheap-web-hosting-guide-get-a-good-host-without-breaking-your-wallet/" target="_blank">style="text-decoration: underline;">How To Take Advantage Of Cheap Web Hosting Deals and I strongly encourage web hosting shoppers to check it out.

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