Many Grow features serve bookmarks to posts and pages on your site to readers, but there are cases where a publisher might not want to direct all traffic to a specific post or page. These might be archive pages that don’t have ads and won’t monetize well, members-only pages, seasonal posts that are not currently in season, or affiliate posts.
To ensure the best user experience possible, Grow allows publishers to exclude specific posts from Grow’s features!
When you choose to exclude a post, you will be preventing it from appearing in all Grow features. That means excluding a post removes it from Recommended Content widgets, Automailer emails, and Grow’s Search experience. Readers can still access these posts, but Grow will not drive traffic to them with its recommendation engine.
How to Exclude Single Posts in Grow
To exclude single posts in Grow, you’ll navigate to Grow Publisher Portal and click Grow Settings > Recommended Content in the siderail. From there, you’ll scroll down to the Pages to Exclude section.
In the Pages to Exclude section, you’re able to search for specific posts with keywords, titles, and more. Once you’ve located the post you wish to exclude, click Exclude. You can do this as many times as you need to exclude the posts you do not wish to appear in Grow’s features.
When you’re done excluding posts, scroll down and click Save Changes in the bottom right to remove the posts from Grow.
If you would like to restore posts to Grow’s features, all you need to do is head back to the Pages to Exclude section to find your list of excluded posts. From there, you’ll find the post you’d like to include in Grow features and click the include button. Don’t forget to click Save Changes in the bottom right corner to add the posts back to Grow.
For example, if my permalinks for posts in the Recommended Content category all began with demo.grow.me/recommended-content/, I could add a custom URL filter for /recommended-content/ to remove any Recommended Content posts from Grow.
Grow’s Recommended Content widgets are designed to serve your readers the posts they are most likely to click next. They’re designed to work with your content and with the reader’s device, helping you gain second and third clicks to additional posts.
Recommendations aren’t necessarily related to the post currently being viewed. Instead they are tailored to each and every reader’s browsing history, measured through cookies and interaction with Grow on the site. Every saved post, Recommended Content click, Search result, and Automailer click is registered to build stronger and more personalized recommendations.
If it’s a reader’s first time visiting your site, Grow will serve Recommended Content based on how other readers have clicked from the current post.
Inline Recommended Content
The Inline widget appears in your post content, offering three additional posts.
Depending on your niche or the post type, the Inline Recommended Content widget can appear at the end of the post content area or directly above the recipe or how-to card. This is to ensure your Most Valuable Content is placed at the bottom of the post, encouraging readers to scroll through all your content to get there. (This strategy can boost ad impressions and revenue!)
On mobile screens, the Inline widget takes on a vertical layout.
The What’s Next widget appears on mobile devices and serves a single post the reader is most likely to click next. It’s our most effective and most clicked Recommended Content widget, a tiny powerhouse at the bottom of the mobile screen.
Depending on your Grow Appearance Settings, What’s Next can appear on the left or right side of the mobile browser.
The Header Carousel widget is exclusive to desktop devices. This sticky widget spans the top of the screen and drops down as the reader scrolls back up your site – a sign of exit intent.
You’re also able to set the Header Carousel to “always on” meaning that it will deploy as soon as the reader begins scrolling down the page.
The Sidebar widget is another desktop exclusive, adding three vertical recommendations to your site’s sidebar. This is not a sticky widget, so it will not scroll with readers are they move through your post content.
Just head to Grow Publisher Portal and choose Grow Settings > Recommended Content in the siderail menu. From there, toggle on the Recommended Content widgets you’d like to appear on your site.
When enabling the Sidebar or Header Carousel widgets, you’ll be given the option to define a custom selector to help Grow target the correct area on your site. You can also choose to keep the Header Carousel always on or adjust its Z-index to ensure it doesn’t scroll under elements on your site.
Grow’s Exclusive Content allows you to incentivize readers to subscribe to your mailing by locking content behind a free, subscriber-only access wall.
Subscribers who wish to access Exclusive Content on your site do need to sign up for a Grow account, which Grow will ask them to do after subscribing to any Grow conversion tool, including Exclusive Content. This modal will also allow readers to sign into an existing Grow account if they already have one.
This way, Grow can save the user’s email address in the browser, then check it against your Grow subscribers list. If it finds the logged in user among your Grow subscribers, the Exclusive Content is unlocked and accessible.
Readers also don’t need to unlock every single Exclusive Content widget on your site. Subscribing and signing into a Grow account will unlock all the Exclusive Content across your entire site, allowing your biggest fans full access to all your best content!
That also means you’ll only need to create one Exclusive Content widget in Grow that you can use repeatedly!
Setting Up Exclusive Content
You can set up Exclusive Content in two ways: via HTML or CSS. While these methods are available to all publishers, these examples are tailored for sites on WordPress.
Implementing Exclusive Content via the CSS Method (Block Editor)
Unlocking this Exclusive Content will give you access to a PDF file of my best tips and tricks for implementing Grow on your site. As long as you’re signed into your Grow account, you’ll be able to access this file directly on my site, along with any other Exclusive Content on my site!
Print Pass can help you turn your instructional content into Exclusive Content, making the print pages for your Create, Tasty, and WordPress Recipe Maker instruction cards subscriber-only.
Since Print Pass is powered by Grow’s Exclusive Content technology, readers will be asked to subscribe to your email newsletter and sign into or create a Grow account. If they are not logged into a Grow account, they will see Print Pass on every single print page they access from your instruction card even if they already subscribed.
Subscribe Redirect allows you to redirect your subscribers to another page on your site, a page on an external site, or directly to file as soon as they enter their email address It’s a great way to incentivize readers to join your mailing list and immediately deliver a freebie, thank you message, affiliate link, and more!
Subscribe Redirect works with four of Grow’s Subscribe form types:
Subscribe Redirect will open all links in a new tab so it’s easy for the reader to navigate back to your content.
How to Set Up Subscribe Redirect
Adding Subscribe Redirect to your Subscribe forms is easy!
In Grow Publisher Portal, navigate to Subscribe > Forms and click Manage Form on an existing form to which you want to add a redirect link. You can also click Add New Form to create a brand new Subscribe form; once you’ve created your form in the Subscribe Wizard, click “Show me my new form.”
When you’re on your form’s settings, scroll down to the Form Actions section and click Add Action, then click Add Redirect Link. You’ll be able to add your URL there!
Integrating Grow with Flodesk (our preferred Email Service Provider partner) is as easy as logging in!
By integrating Grow and Flodesk, you’ll be able to add Form Actions to your Grow conversion tools – like Subscribe forms, Print Pass, and Exclusive Content widgets – to send your Grow Subscribers to Flodesk automatically. You can even choose specific segments to send them to by conversion tool!
How to connect Grow to Flodesk
To connect Grow to your Flodesk account, head to Grow Publisher Portal > Grow Settings > Integrations. Then, click Connect in the Flodesk section.
You’re also able to connect Flodesk to Grow in your Flodesk Integrations settings. This integration will enable the “Use Grow Email Connect” toggle in your Flodesk newsletter, making it fast and easy to convert all links to your site in Flodesk newsletters to Email Connect links that identify your readers as they land on your site.
Video: Using Email Connect Links in the Flodesk Editor
Category Targeting is a WordPress-exclusive feature that allows you to target your Spotlight and Pop Up Subscribe forms to appear on posts in specific categories. That means if you have an email newsletter sequence or a lead magnet for a specific type of content, you can create a special Subscribe form to target subscribers with that niche interest.
This is a great way to capture seasonal or holiday audiences and add them to your email list to encourage year-round return visits!
Since Category Targeting depends on your WordPress category metadata, it’s only available for sites on WordPress. To pull in your WordPress category metadata, you’ll need to install the Grow for WordPress plugin. After installing and activating the Grow for WordPress plugin, connect your Grow account.
When you’ve got your Subscribe form set up for Category Targeting, it will replace your default Spotlight or Pop Up Subscribe form on any posts in that category.
If a post falls into multiple categories that have a Category Targeting-assigned Subscribe form, Grow will choose which Subscribe form to display at random. There is currently no hierarchy or way to set a preferred form.
Not seeing the Subscribe form? You may already be subscribed. Open this post in an incognito window and try again!
Some of Grow’s most successful and popular features are its Subscribe forms, conversion tools designed to capture your readers’ attention – and their email addresses!
Grow’s Subscribe forms offer flexibility in how you build your email list without requiring extensive coding knowledge. Grow currently features 5 types of Subscribe forms:
Each form is designed to make it easy for your readers to subscribe to your content while consenting to interest-based advertising, which is important as the Internet moves toward its cookie-less future.
Let’s see Grow’s Subscribe forms in action!
Spotlight Subscribe
Spotlight Subscribe forms are in-content Subscribe forms automatically placed about 15% of the way into a post’s content.
The Spotlight Effect dims the screen around Spotlight Subscribe forms to call attention to them the same way a pop up might, without cluttering the user’s screen.
The Inview Effect can also be enabled for Spotlight Subscribe forms. This box allows the Spotlight Subscribe form to stick to the top of the page and scroll with the reader, increasing the length of time it’s on screen and its viewability!
Grow’s Pop Up Subscribe forms will populate when a reader scrolls around 25% of the way into content or when readers display exit intent behaviors, depending on your Display Experience settings. They will only appear once per session.
Since you may have already experienced our Pop Up Subscribe form, here’s a gif showing the mobile experience:
Pop Up Subscribe forms are also Google-friendly! They are reverse-targeted for Google traffic, meaning when readers arrive on your site from Google Search results, they will be served a Spotlight Subscribe form instead of a Pop Up Subscribe form to ensure you are not penalized by Google for use of pop ups.
Manual Placement Subscribe forms look like Spotlight Subscribe forms and can even use the Spotlight Effect, but they are manually placed with an HTML code, either in your HTML editor or a Custom HTML block.
Manual Placement forms must be placed below the first screen view or they may not load as intended. This is because Grow’s scripts are deferred from the first screen view to ensure your site loads as quickly as possible!
Click to Subscribe forms let you customize the look and feel of a header menu or sidebar (or anywhere else) and embrace your inner minimalist without sacrificing a conversion opportunity.
Grow’s newest Subscribe form, Link Share forms take the hassle out of sending post links to your subscribers. With a Link Share form, a reader just needs to enter their email address and click the submit button. Then Grow will send an email straight to the reader with a link to the article they were browsing!
Link Share forms are great for posts readers are likely to use for reference, like recipes, travel guides, lesson plans, and more.
Link Share forms can be set as the default Spotlight Subscribe form – meaning they’ll be placed 15% of the way into post content – or put in a custom location with the Most Valuable Content Form setting in Grow Publisher Portal. This can easily add your Link Share form to elements with unique content selectors, like the Create recipe card below!
How to Add a Link Share Form
Setting up a Link Share form is easy! You'll create the form in Grow Publisher Portal, then decide where to set it and forget it.
Instructions
First, head to Grow Publisher Portal and click Subscribe in the siderail. Then click Add New Form.
Choose a Link Share form as your Form Type and fill in the fields in the Subscribe Wizard.
Now that your Link Share form has been created, decide where to place it:
If you want it to appear in-content in all your posts, set it as your Default Spotlight Subscribe form under Subscribe Settings.
If you want it to appear in a specific place in addition to your default Spotlight Subscribe form, scroll down on the Subscribe Settings page and enable the Most Valuable Content Form. Then choose your Link Share form from the dropdown. Depending on where you are placing the form, you may need to define a Most Valuable Content selector.
Notes
Link Share forms can automatically target Create, Tasty, and WordPress Recipe Maker recipe and how-to cards!
Want to automatically add your Link Share subscribers to your newsletter list?
Enable Automailer List on your Link Share form settings to add subscribers to Automailer.
Add Form Actions on your Link Share form settings to send subscribers to your Email Service Provider.
