Creating Gated Content With WordPress ⚠️

I’ve been working with WordPress for years now and I’ve always been intrigued by gated content.

It’s one of those things that can be a real game-changer for your website but it also has the potential to backfire if you don’t do it right.

What is Gated Content?

Think of it as a digital doorman.

You’ve got some really valuable content that you want to share with your audience but you want to make sure they’re actually interested before they get access.

So you put up a gate – a form a login screen or maybe even a social media follow – that they have to go through before they can see the good stuff.

Gated content can be anything – a downloadable e-book a webinar a case study even access to exclusive blog posts.

It’s all about creating content that provides real value to your audience and then using that content to capture their information – usually their name and email address.

Why Use Gated Content?

The biggest benefit of gated content is lead generation. You’re essentially using your content as bait to attract potential customers and build your email list. Once you have their information you can start nurturing them through email marketing offering them valuable content and eventually guiding them towards your products or services.

But it’s not just about building a list. Gated content also helps you qualify your leads. By offering something valuable in exchange for their information you’re attracting people who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer. This means you’re more likely to convert those leads into paying customers which is always a good thing!

When Should You Use Gated Content?

Now don’t go locking up all your content behind gates! It’s essential to use gated content strategically.

It’s a powerful tool but it can also hurt your SEO if not implemented correctly.

Think of it as a special treat you want to offer your audience not a way to control every piece of content on your site.

Here are a few guidelines to keep in mind:

• Don’t gate your most basic content. You want to provide value right off the bat to build trust with your audience. Offer free valuable content that will make them want to come back for more.
• Save gated content for your most valuable pieces. This could be content that’s deeply insightful highly actionable or even exclusive to your brand.
• Use gated content to offer specific solutions to your audience’s problems. This will help attract the right people to your gated content.

Creating Gated Content With WordPress

Now let’s dive into how to actually create gated content using WordPress.

There are a couple of different ways to approach this but the easiest is to use plugins:

1. Contact Form 7 Gated Content:

This plugin which integrates with the popular Contact Form 7 is great for gating downloadable content like ebooks or white papers.

The plugin adds a form to the download button hiding it until the form is filled out.

Here’s how it works:

1. You create a form in Contact Form 7 and it captures the desired information from your visitors (like their name and email address).
2. You use the Contact Form 7 Gated Content plugin to create a gated button for the downloadable content.

This button will be hidden until the user fills out your form.

3. After submission the button appears and allows users to download the content.

2. Before and After:

This plugin is a little more versatile than Contact Form 7 Gated Content and can be used to gate downloadable content pages and posts.

It’s also great for creating different types of gates like contact forms terms of service pages or even age restrictions.

Here’s a breakdown of how it works:

1. You install and activate the plugin on your WordPress website.
2. Select the content you want to gate whether it’s a page post or downloadable file.
3. Configure the type of gate you want to use.

You can choose a contact form a terms of service page or even an age restriction.
4. Customize the gate’s appearance and the content that’s displayed to users before they pass through the gate.

5. The plugin will automatically display the gate to your visitors when they try to access the gated content.

3. Simple Membership:

If you’re looking to create a membership area for your site Simple Membership is a great option.

It allows you to offer free or paid memberships and gate certain content based on membership status.

Here’s how you can use it for gated content:

1. You create a free or paid membership level on your website.
2. You select the content you want to restrict access to and choose to make it available only to members of a specific membership level.
3. When visitors try to access the gated content they’ll be prompted to sign up for a free membership or to log in if they already have an account.

A Word of Caution About SEO

Remember that gating content can impact your website’s SEO.

The robots that crawl and index your website can’t fill out forms so they may not be able to access your gated content.

To avoid this it’s essential to hide your gated content from search engines.

You can do this using a couple of different techniques:

• Use a plugin: Plugins like “Yoast SEO” or “Rank Math” allow you to mark specific pages as “noindex” to prevent search engines from crawling and indexing them.
• Use a custom code snippet: Adding a simple code snippet to your site’s header can also instruct search engines not to index certain pages.

The Importance of Balance

Ultimately the key to successful gated content is balance.

Don’t go overboard and gate everything! Offer plenty of high-quality free content to build trust with your audience.

Then use gated content strategically to offer your most valuable and insightful information in exchange for their information.

I hope this overview of gated content has been helpful! Remember the key is to use it strategically and focus on creating content that genuinely offers value to your audience.

You’ll be surprised at how much you can achieve with this powerful tool.

Now if you’ll excuse me I have some gated content to create!