Build elegant pop-up windows in Wordpress with the plug-in Popup-Maker

As a rule, I create all websites for my customers with the WordPress blog system. Exceptions are websites where I have to create individual programming with PHP - but otherwise: everything in WordPress. As I mention below, there have been several requests from customers to include a popup on the page, which is why I have now started looking for popup solutions for WordPress.

Update 10.11.2021/XNUMX/XNUMX: two new recommendations

The article is a bit older and in the meantime I have been able to gain more experience with various plugins and services. The Popup Maker plugin is still ok, but from my point of view it is a rudimentary solution that I would no longer recommend unreservedly. The popups that you design with it are not as easy to design “nicely” as with two other plugins or services that I would like to recommend to you now.

GetSiteControl

The first is a service that is not limited to Wordpress, but in which you can choose from many templates with a super-simple wizard and then customize the design, specifying on which pages the pop-up should appear, how often it should appear and how to trigger it.

Once you have finished designing the popup, you install the service’s plugin on your WordPress site (the plugin is also called “GetSiteControl”) and connect the site to the service – done.

Disadvantage: Unfortunately, the service costs money monthly or annually - but from my point of view it is absolutely worth the expense. I use it, for example, to show my newsletter popup at the bottom of my blog.

» continue to GetSiteControl

Elfsight

Another service that is also super-easy - but unfortunately a bit expensive - is Elfsight. On this website, a programming team offers countless functional extensions for WordPress, including popups.

At Elfsight you are also in a very easy to use interface and choose from existing templates, which you can then customize. The extensions are all very well thought out and beautifully designed.

» continue to Elfsight

Pop-up request due to corona crisis

Triggered by the corona pandemic, two customers have asked whether I could create a popup on the website for them that shows visitors how the services of my customers can still be used.

TL; DR: For everyone who doesn't feel like reading all of my explanations: You will find the Popup Maker plugin, which is about here in the collection of WordPress plugins on wordpress.org or directly on the provider's website.

Correct name: overlay instead of popup

In fact, the term pop-up window is not quite correct, even if everyone uses it that way. In practice, this is just an overlay element that hovers over the rest of the website. A pop-up window, on the other hand, is an independent browser window that is opened by a script and is then in the foreground.

However, the "real" pop-up windows were abolished years ago because they were massively misused for advertising windows. Every browser now intercepts such windows independently so that they do not annoy the user. The user then usually only sees an indication that a page has attempted to open a pop-up window.

So we're dealing with an overlay window here - even if we're doing it with the "Popup Maker" plugin, which has the wrong name as it is.

Free and flexible to configure: Popup Maker

When it comes to WordPress pop-up plugins, there is a huge range to choose from. I've tried a few plugins and it was not uncommon for them to be solutions that were free as a plugin, but for a working implementation you should take out a monthly subscription from an affiliated service.

In contrast, the completely free variants are often faulty and do not open for some inexplicable reason, or they only look good on the desktop or tablet and are displayed incorrectly on the smartphone - i.e. unusable.

Popup Maker was the first plugin that offered many setting options, simple operation, free use and perfect functionality. Accordingly, I would like to present it here as a recommendation. You find it here on the provider website.

Requirements for implementation

In order to reach as many visitors as possible with the window that is displayed, it should not only appear on the home page, but also on all sub-pages that people can access via links on Google, for example.

It was also important to me that the popup (I consistently use the wrong name in the rest of the text) is only displayed once per day and visitor. For this purpose, the plugin must set a cookie that remains for one day. The cookie should already be set when the popup opens and not only after it is closed - if visitors jump off, the window will not be displayed again the next time they visit.

The last wish was the design of the content. Both simple texts and graphics should be able to be used here. To do this, the overlay must look good on the Mac as well as on the iPad and iPhone - i.e. it must be responsive and adapt to the end device.

All of these things can be done with the popup Maker solve - even in the free basic version.

Settings in the plugin

I want you based on my current customer project www.knowwau.com show which settings I have made in the plugin. My customer gave me permission to do so and will hopefully get a few visitors to this article as a thank you.

If you are interested in dog training and would like to take a look at some of their online courses (since you currently cannot go to any dog ​​school), then I would like you to visit their website knowwau.com warmly recommend. You can currently find the popup in action there. ;-)

In the settings for the shutter release, I always choose that the window should open automatically after half a second. At the same time, a cookie with a duration of one day is set so that visitors only see the cookie once every 24 hours.

The Targeting area enables the selection of the pages on which the popup should appear. There are numerous options here. If you don't select anything, the banner will appear on all pages.

You can choose between different themes and change them in the theme editor. Here, for example, the transparency in the background can be set or the spacing and size of the window can be changed. I left everything as it was and only set the transparency to 80%. The rest is already ideal for display on desktop computers and mobile devices.

There is a separate area in the plugin for customizing the “Close” button. This allows you to decide where the button appears, what color it has and what text it carries.

Test popups with customers

Of course, when working on a popup, you don't want every visitor to be confronted with the construction work. For this reason, I always set the trigger so that the popup only appears for 404 errors. So if you call up a URL that does not exist on the website. To do this, simply append “/abc” or something similar to the domain and call up this URL.

In order to avoid the fact that you can only test the popup once a day, I always use an incognito window or a private window, since no cookies are stored in these browser windows and the popup is shown again and again.

On exit intent and other specialties

If you want to make an on exit intent popup - i.e. a popup that opens when the visitor moves the mouse pointer out of the browser window - then you unfortunately have to subscribe to Popup Maker Service book. The prices (USD 247 per year) are quite steep there, so I would rather look for an alternative at this point.

However, if you earn money with your blog and are willing to pay for a comprehensive popup tool that combines ease of use and clean popups, you can still take a look at the Popup Maker subscriptions.

Jen Kleinholz( Founder & Sir Apfelot )

Jens has been running the blog since 2012. He acts as Sir Apfelot for his readers and helps them with technical problems. In his spare time he rides electric unicycles, takes photos (preferably with the iPhone, of course), climbs around in the Hessian mountains or hikes with the family. His articles deal with Apple products, news from the world of drones or solutions to current bugs.