How to Add Push Notification to Your WordPress Website

Content creation is one thing, but content distribution is a completely different ball game. Most websites master the art of content creation and still wonder why are they not generating enough traffic. This is because, while they do have exceptional content, they are not putting it out there for people to read, i.e, they are not distributing their content effectively.

Having said that, one of the most effective ways to distribute content is by sending push notifications to your readers. Now there is a high chance that you some of you might not have heard about push notifications or how to install them on your website, but that’s what I am here for.

In this article I will take you through a thorough explanation of what push notification is and how to install it using OneSignal.

Let’s begin!

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What Are Push Notifications? 

A push notification is a notification message that is displayed on your subscribers’ desktop screen when they are active. Through the OneSignal dashboard, you send notifications of your content to your subscribers so that they can see your content without visiting your website. It looks something like this.

But how do you get subscribers? Once you install the OneSignal push notification on your site, your visitors will see a prompt on their web browser once they visit your site which will look like this:

Image Credits: OneSignal

By clicking Allow, your visitors will become your OneSignal subscribers and will be able to see your push notifications. 

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Why Do You Need Push Notification?

There are a number of reasons why Push Notification is a great way to distribute your content but I am going to be focusing on the main ones. 

Boosts Referral Traffic

There are usually 3 main sources of traffic, Organic, Social and Referral. You have a lot of control over your organic and social traffic but not so much on your referral which makes push notifications an ever better option to distribute your content.

However, not all content will get the same response on your push notification. To bring significant referral traffic through your push notification, you need to publish content that entices people to click on your link. Maybe a news article or an unpopular opinion. 

Bring Back Visitors

Push notification is an effective way to bring back those customers who once subscribed to your blog but didn’t return. They are those visitors who not only read your content but also liked it which is why they subscribed to it too. Once you send a push notification, you bring back those visitors and engage them on your blog again. 

Many Marketers Are Yet to Use Push Notification

Push notification is a strategy that is yet to be extensively used by marketers to promote their content. This makes it even more important for you to learn about push notification and how you can use it to your advantage and be one step ahead of your competitors. 

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How to Add Push Notification to Your WordPress Website

Now that we have understood what is push notification and why do you need it, let’s see how you can add OneSignal to your WordPress website.

The first step is to Install OneSignal to Your WordPress Site.

Once you have installed and activated the plugin, you will see the OneSignal Push tab on the WordPress sidebar.

Click on the OneSignal tab to go to plugin settings to configure and setup the plugin. In the settings page you will see two options:

• Setup
• Configuration

The setup tab tells you how you can install OneSignal on your website while the configuration tab includes all the steps for you to follow to configure it.

Let’s jump directly to Configuration to start configuring push notification on your website.

The first step in the configuration tab is to add your App ID followed by Rest API Key. To get your APP ID and API Key, you need to create an account on OneSignal.com.

To signup, just fill out this form…

…and once you have signed up, you will see an Add App/Website option on your top left.

Click on the option and give you new App a name…

…and once you have done that, it’s time to select a platform. Since this tutorial is about web push, select Web Push from the given options and click NEXT.

The next step is to choose an integration. For this tutorial I have chosen WordPress Plugin or Website Builder but if you have a custom site, you can choose another option.

You will then be given a number of options with different CMSs. Since this tutorial is focused on WordPress only, I will choose WordPress.

Once you have done that, it’s time to enter your site information.

Once you have completed this form, click Save to move further in the configuration process.

You will now see that you have your own App ID and Rest API Key.

Copy this information and paste it on your configuration page.

If you scroll down this page, you will see a number of push notification settings that you need to configure before finishing the process.

For example, you will have to configure the Sent Notification Settings…

…and the Prompt Settings before you click on the Save button.

Once you are done will all the settings, click Save and OneSignal Push notification will be installed on your WordPress website.

Now you will be able to send push notifications to your subscribers. 

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Final Words

In this article, we learned what are push notifications, their importance and how you can install them on your WordPress website. It is important to know that push notification can prove to be a great addition to your marketing strategy if it can be used properly.

If you have any questions regarding push notifications or how to install them, let me know in the comments.