One of the most common and critical things that you may want to do on your website provides a list of events based on a time and place. For example, you might be an artist and have several art shows scheduled for the year. How would you let your regular customers and prospective buyers know about your shows? The most common way to do this in any formatted fashion is to use a calendar. Fortunately, with your WordPress for Small Business account, there are many solutions available to you through the expanded functionality provided by WordPress plugins.
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How to Select a Calendar Solution for your WordPress Site
Whenever you select a solution for your calendar needs, you should first write down the requirements that you expect from your website calendar. Here’s a short list of things that you may consider when picking your calendar plugin:
- Is it current and kept up-to-date?
- Can it provide a clear view of your event?
- What does it look like when it’s published on your website?
- Do you have options to change views? (e.g. year, month, week, day views)
- Is it easy to use?
- Can it synchronize with other types of calendars (e.g. Google calendar, Outlook calendar)
- Does it include ticketing functionality?
- Does it provide notifications?
- Can you search through your events list?
The easiest way to see the various plugins that you can add to WordPress is to go to the WordPress.org/plugins page and then search for “Event Calendars.” Currently, if you do this, there are over 30 pages of plugins listed. In other words, there are hundreds of choices available to you. How do you make this easier? First, make sure you are sure of what you need. The list above includes most of what you will typically require for a calendar, but you may have a specific need that is not listed. In most cases, these calendar plugins are free, but they also provide a “pro” version that includes many other features.
Don’t despair, though. Yes, this may require a little work, but it is very easy to add the plugin, try it out and then remove it from your WordPress site. Though, with a little homework, you may find a good calendar solution without too much frustration. To help you decide, note that the WordPress search includes a few important statistics: an estimated number of installations and ratings. A typical indication of success for a plugin is the number of installations. A plugin with hundreds of thousands of installations will generally be a more mature and tested plugin than one with just a few recorded installations. You can also view the ratings for each plugin. Although the ratings and number of installations may not indicate a solution that’s a perfect fit for you, they are a good way for you to determine the solutions you select to try.
Best Event Calendars
It’s very easy to get lost in all of the choices that you have with WordPress calendar plugins. To give you a headstart on the process of selecting a calendar plugin, we have chosen five possible solutions based on the number of installations and user ratings.
- All-in-One Calendar
- The Events Calendar
- Event Calendar WD – Responsive Event Calendar Plugin
- My Calendar
- Booking Calendar
- JetPack
Remember that each calendar solution is different and may provide options that you need only by purchasing a pro license. So, there will be no substitute for loading it and trying it before committing it to your website.
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