OwnerRez has a native WordPress plugin available. By combining this plugin with widgets you can build unique and powerful direct booking websites for your rental properties.
This article provides a list of common questions and answers about the WordPress Plugin.
- What are the software requirements for using the plugin?
- Won't my website SEO be harmed if my photos, amenities, etc. are provided from the OwnerRez servers rather than the server hosting my website?
- How do I fix a 403 Forbidden Error, or IP Denied Access, on my production site?
- How do I update outdated information with the WordPress Plugin?
- Token Recommendations
- I'm receiving error messages stating, "This content is blocked. Contact the site owner to fix the issue." How do I fix this?
What are the software requirements for using the plugin?
WordPress version 5.4 and PHP 7.4+ (tested up to 8.0) must be installed on your web hosting environment. The plugin does not work for any earlier versions.
This upgrade is usually simple and your host may have a button to do it automatically, but each web host places the upgrade tools in a different spot. If you can't figure out how to upgrade, contact support for your WordPress host and they'll be able to help you find the correct procedure for your site.
Won't my website SEO be harmed if my photos, amenities, etc. are provided from the OwnerRez servers rather than the server hosting my website, and are the same as what's on listing channels like Vrbo?
No, this is standard practice and not actually a problem. There are actually two separate types of duplicate content issues:
- Duplicate content that's all on your own site, but reached from different paths. This can happen when you have the same page content accessible via different URL's, like www.mysite.com/page vs mysite.com/page. This is bad because it splits your page rank between the different pages, but there's an easy fix -- pick one main URL, and use a permanent 301 redirect to point any other pages or domains to the main one.
- Duplicated prose across different sites (your site, Vrbo, Airbnb, etc.). The Internet is full of this, and there is no penalty for having the same description on different sites. Google certainly won't "mark you down for plagiarism". From Google's guide on duplicate content:
Duplicate content on a site is not grounds for action on that site unless it appears that the intent of the duplicate content is to be deceptive and manipulate search engine results. If your site suffers from duplicate content issues, and you don't follow the advice listed in this document, we do a good job of choosing a version of the content to show in our search results.
So basically, unless you're trying to manipulate the results with blog spam rings showing thousands of pages of the same duplicate content, it's not a problem.
The only potential issue with having the same description on your site and Vrbo is that if someone is searching for an exact phrase you have in your description, Google might show them the link to your Vrbo listing instead of using a page on your own direct booking site. That's not really avoidable, though, and you'd still be getting the person to your listing anyway.
And - none of this applies to images anyway. :-)
How do I fix a 403 Forbidden error, or IP Denied Access, on my production site?
Go to your WordPress Plugin configuration and click on the Access token to view the authorization settings:
Check to see if the IP is allowed/blocked:
If you think you have the right IP in there, but it's still not working, try switching to block mode vs. allow. If it starts working, you know the IP wasn't correct.
How do I update outdated information with the WordPress Plugin?
If the WordPress Plugin is showing outdated information after users make changes within OwnerRez, the plugin Cache file can be "bounced" to refresh it. This is located within Settings > WordPress Plugin > (Plugin name) at the top right of the page:
Once this has been completed, the user may also need to clear the cache on their browser to see the updated details.
Token Recommendations
OwnerRez recommends that during the development of your own WordPress site, users generate separate tokens. One token for the local development site and one token for the production site allows users to validate that both are working from the beginning and be able to accomplish incremental deployments to the production website.
I'm receiving error messages stating, "This content is blocked. Contact the site owner to fix the issue." How do I fix this?
Without knowing exactly what the error is, OwnerRez recommends that users try a couple of workarounds.
- Try going into your website or hosting account to "clear cache." Read WordPress's support article, Clear Your Site’s Cache, for more information and instructions.
- Verify that you have added OwnerRez's new URL by changing the address in the widget code from OwnerReservations.com to OwnerRez.com.
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It is common for Content Security Policies (CSP) to be applied to WordPress sites. Try changing all references to secure.ownerreservations.com in your Content-Security-Policy to secure.ownerrez.com.