by The Simple Tour Guide WordPress plugin is a lightweight and user-friendly tool designed to help WordPress website owners create guided tours, onboarding walkthroughs, and interactive tutorials for their visitors or users. These tours are useful for explaining features, introducing new sections of the site, or walking users through the steps of a process—especially useful in complex websites like eCommerce stores, membership portals, or admin dashboards.
Overview of Simple Tour Guide Plugin
The Simple Tour Guide plugin enables site administrators to build step-by-step visual guides that highlight different parts of a web page. These guides help reduce confusion and improve user experience by walking visitors through interface elements with contextual information. Whether you’re launching a new product, showcasing updates, or guiding new users through your WordPress admin panel, this plugin simplifies the process.
The plugin doesn’t require any coding skills, making it accessible to beginners. It uses visual selection tools and step-building interfaces to allow easy configuration of each guide. The goal is to make it simple, effective, and compatible with a wide range of WordPress themes and setups.
Key Features
1. Visual Step-by-Step Tours
You can create multi-step tours where each step highlights a specific element on the page (like a button, image, or menu item) and displays a tooltip or modal with custom text. This helps guide users’ attention and provide relevant information as they navigate.
2. Frontend and Backend Tours
Simple Tour Guide can be used to create guided tours on both the front end (for visitors or logged-in users) and the back end (for clients or site contributors using the WordPress dashboard). This makes it versatile for use cases ranging from SaaS onboarding to client training.
3. Drag-and-Drop Interface
The plugin offers an intuitive drag-and-drop interface for building tours. You can reorder steps, preview changes in real time, and assign each step to a page element using CSS selectors or visual selection tools.
4. Flexible Step Targeting
Each step can be assigned to an element on the page via its CSS class or ID. When the tour is running, the plugin automatically scrolls to and highlights the target element while displaying your custom message.
5. Customizable Tooltip Placement
You can control where the tooltip appears relative to the highlighted element (top, bottom, left, right, or auto). This ensures that the messages are always clearly visible and don’t interfere with the content.
6. Tour Trigger Options
Tours can be triggered manually via a button click, page load, or based on user behavior (like first visit or login). This gives you control over when and how tours are shown.
7. Tour Controls and Progress
The plugin provides navigation controls such as “Next,” “Previous,” and “Done” buttons, as well as a progress indicator. Users can also exit the tour at any time if they wish.
8. Page Targeting
Each tour step can be set to run on a specific page or post, making it possible to create multi-page tours or context-specific tutorials.
Benefits of Using Simple Tour Guide
1. Enhanced User Onboarding
For SaaS applications or complex websites, user onboarding is essential. Simple Tour Guide helps users understand your product faster, which reduces churn and increases user satisfaction.
2. Reduced Support Requests
Clear walkthroughs can significantly reduce the number of support queries by answering common questions directly on the interface.
3. Client Training
If you’re building WordPress sites for clients, you can use the plugin to create a back-end tour showing them how to manage their site—without writing a manual or holding repeated meetings.
4. Product Feature Announcements
When launching new features, you can highlight them with a tour rather than relying on users to explore them on their own.
5. Increased User Engagement
Interactive elements like tours help keep users engaged with your site and encourage them to explore features they might otherwise overlook.
Use Cases
- SaaS Applications: Walk new users through your app’s features and dashboard.
- E-Commerce Sites: Guide customers through the checkout process or highlight promotional features.
- Educational Platforms: Orient students with course dashboards or quiz functionality.
- Blog Sites: Show readers how to navigate, subscribe, or engage with content.
- Admin Dashboards: Help contributors and editors understand their tools and options.
Installation and Setup
- Install the Plugin
Go to your WordPress admin dashboard. Navigate to Plugins > Add New, search for “Simple Tour Guide,” and click Install Now. Then activate the plugin. - Create a New Tour
After activation, a new menu item will appear (usually called “Tour Guide” or similar). Click on Add New Tour. - Add Steps
For each step, you’ll define:- The CSS selector of the element you want to highlight.
- The message you want to display.
- The position of the tooltip.
- The page/post where this step should appear.
- Save and Preview
Save the tour and preview it on your site. Make adjustments as needed. You can drag and drop steps to reorder them. - Publish and Assign Triggers
Decide when the tour should be shown—on first visit, every time, or triggered manually via a shortcode or button.
Customization Options
While the plugin is designed to work out of the box, developers can customize the appearance of tooltips using CSS. Some premium versions or extensions may also offer additional features such as:
- Tour scheduling
- Analytics (to see how users interact with the tour)
- Multilingual support
- A/B testing
- Conditional logic
If the plugin supports custom themes or templates, it can blend seamlessly with your site’s branding.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Lightweight and fast
- No coding required
- Useful for onboarding and training
- Compatible with most themes and plugins
- Supports both frontend and backend
Cons
- May have limitations in free version (e.g., number of steps or tours)
- Requires basic understanding of CSS selectors
- Advanced features may need paid upgrade
Alternatives
While Simple Tour Guide is great for basic needs, other more advanced plugins include:
- WP Intro – For more animated intro screens.
- Intro.js WordPress integration – Based on the popular JavaScript library.
- Shepherd.js for WP – For more customization and control.
However, for simple and straightforward use cases, Simple Tour Guide remains one of the most efficient and easy-to-use plugins available.
Final Thoughts
The Simple Tour Guide plugin is an excellent solution for anyone looking to add guided tours, onboarding walkthroughs, or interactive tutorials to their WordPress site without diving into complex development. Its balance of simplicity and power makes it suitable for small businesses, educators, developers, and WordPress professionals alike. By helping users understand and interact with your site more effectively, you’re not just improving usability—you’re improving conversions, reducing confusion, and enhancing the overall user experience.
