How to Highlight Text in WordPress (Beginner’s Guide)

Remember using a yellow highlighter to mark important passages in textbooks? The digital equivalent in WordPress is just as useful for making key information stand out on your website.

But many beginners don’t realize how easy it is to add this formatting to their content.

Throughout our time running WPBeginner, we’ve noticed that simple techniques like text highlighting often make the biggest difference in how readers engage with content.

When used strategically, highlighted text can guide visitors to your most important points and improve message retention.

In this guide, we’ll show you several easy methods to highlight text in WordPress.

Why Highlight Text in WordPress

Highlighting text in WordPress helps you draw attention to the most important parts of your content.

It makes key information easier to notice, improves readability, and offers support accessibility for users who may have visual or reading difficulties.

Here are the main benefits of highlighting text:

• Improves Visibility of Key Information: It helps important details like discounts, offers, or warnings stand out so readers don’t miss them.
• Increases Conversions: By highlighting calls to action or special offers, you can guide users toward taking the next step more easily.
• Enhances Readability: It makes long content easier to scan, helping readers quickly find the most relevant points.
• Supports Accessibility: It can help users with visual impairments or reading difficulties better understand and navigate your content.
• Improves Visual Appeal: When used correctly, highlighting can make your content look more structured and engaging.

Best Practices for Effective Text Highlighting

Now that you know why text highlighting is useful, it’s important to use it the right way.

When done correctly, it improves readability and engagement, but overusing it can have the opposite effect.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily highlight text in WordPress. You can use the quick links below to jump to the method you wish to use:

Method 1: Highlight Text in WordPress Using the Block Editor

This method is for you if you want to easily highlight text in WordPress using the block editor (Gutenberg).

First, you will need to open up an existing or new post in the content editor from the WordPress admin sidebar.

Once there, simply select the text you want to highlight. Then, click the downward arrow icon in the block toolbar to view more options.

This will open up a dropdown menu where you must choose the ‘Highlight’ option from the list.

A color picker tool will now open up on your screen. From here, you will need to choose the ‘Background’ color option.

After that, choose a default highlight color from the given options.

You can also select a custom color to highlight text by clicking on the ‘Custom’ option to launch the full color picker.

Finally, don’t forget to click the ‘Publish’ or ‘Update’ button to save your changes.

You can now visit your WordPress blog to check out the highlighted text in action.

If you ever want to remove the highlight, select the highlighted text again in the block editor, click the downward arrow icon, and choose ‘Highlight.’

Then select the ‘Clear’ option from the color picker.

Method 2: Highlight Text in WordPress Using WPCode (Recommended)

If you want to consistently use a specific color to highlight text all over your WordPress website, then this method is for you.

The main benefit of this method is global control. If you ever decide to change the highlight color, you only need to update the code snippet once. It will automatically update the highlight color across your entire site.

You can easily highlight text in WordPress by adding CSS code to your theme files. However, the smallest error when entering the code could break your website, making it inaccessible.

That’s why we recommend using WPCode, which is the best WordPress code snippet plugin on the market. It has over 3 million active installations and a 4.9/5 star rating on WordPress.org.

After thorough testing, we’ve found that it is the easiest and safest way to add code to your website without directly editing your theme files. This is all due to its smart code validation, built-in error handling, and secure execution environment

For details, see our WPCode review.

Step 1: Install and Configure WPCode

First, you need to install and activate the WPCode plugin. For more instructions, please see our beginners’ guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Step 2: Create a Custom CSS Snippet

Upon activation, head over to the Code Snippets » + Add Snippet page from the WordPress admin sidebar.

Next, just click the ‘+ Add Custom Snippet’ button under the ‘Add Your Custom Code (New Snippet)’ option.

Then, you need to select a code type. For this tutorial, select the ‘CSS Snippet’ option.

After that, add a suitable name for your code snippet.

This will take you to the ‘Create Custom Snippet’ page, where you can start by typing a name for your code snippet.

The name is only for your reference and can be anything to help you remember what the code is for.

Step 3: Add Your Custom Code

Next, copy and paste the following code into the ‘Code Preview’ box:

mark {
background-color: #ffd4a1;
}

Once you have done that, add the hex code for your preferred highlight color next to the background-color line in the code.

In our example, we are using #ffd4a1, which is a light brown color.

Step 4: Enable Auto Insertion and Save

After that, scroll down to the ‘Insertion’ section.

From here, select the ‘Auto Insert’ method to execute the code upon activation.

Next, head to the top of the page and toggle the ‘Inactive’ switch to ‘Active’.

Finally, click the ‘Save Snippet’ button to store your changes.

Step 5: Edit Post in HTML View

Now that the CSS snippet has been activated, we need to apply the formatting. Since this is a custom style, we will briefly switch to the HTML view for a specific block to wrap the text.

First, open up an existing or new post in the WordPress block editor.

From here, click on the ‘More options’ (three vertical dots) icon in the selected block’s toolbar. This will open up a new dropdown menu where you must select the ‘Edit as HTML’ option.

Step 6: Wrap Text with <mark> Tags

You will now see the block content in HTML format.

Here, simply wrap the text that you want to highlight inside the <mark> </mark> tags like this:

<mark>highlighted-text</mark>

This will highlight the text in the hex color that you chose in your WPCode snippet.

After that, click the ‘Edit Visually’ option in the block toolbar to switch back to the visual editor.

Step 7: Save and Publish Your Post

Once you are done, go ahead and click the ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’ button to save your changes.

Now, you can visit your website to check out the highlighted text in action.

Bonus: Use SeedProd to Highlight Important Pages on Your Website

We have discussed how to format specific words in your content. However, sometimes you may want to highlight entire sections or pages on your site, like a contact form or a gift coupon.

For example, if you have an online store and have just launched a seasonal sale, then you may want to highlight that offer on your website.

You can highlight these sections by creating landing pages for them. These are standalone pages on your website that are designed to generate leads.

To create visually appealing landing pages for your website, we recommend using SeedProd. It is the best WordPress landing page builder on the market, trusted by over 1 million websites and consistently rated 4.9/5 stars on WordPress.org.

SeedProd comes with a drag-and-drop builder, 350+ premade templates, and 90+ blocks.

We’ve seen many businesses, including eCommerce stores and marketing agencies, achieve great results with SeedProd, often reporting significant improvements in lead generation and conversions.

For details, see our SeedProd review.

The plugin makes it easy to create attractive landing pages that highlight important sections of your website like a contact form, sale announcement, giveaways, testimonials, optin forms, login pages, and more.

Other than that, you can also use SeedProd to create custom themes, coming soon pages, maintenance pages, and so much more.

For details, you can see our tutorial on how to create a landing page in WordPress.

Frequently Asked Questions About Highlighting Text in WordPress

Here are some questions that our readers have frequently asked about highlighting text in WordPress:

How do you change the text color in WordPress?

You can change text color in WordPress using the block editor by selecting your text and adjusting the color settings in the block’s “Text Color” option. This lets you quickly style your content without coding.

For more information, see our guide on changing text color in WordPress.

How can you highlight text with HTML in WordPress?

You can highlight text with HTML in WordPress by wrapping it in a <mark> tag or using inline CSS styles. This gives you more control over how the highlight looks.

If you prefer a simpler option, you can also use a plugin like WPCode to add and manage custom CSS snippets inside your WordPress dashboard.

What Ctrl key is used for highlighting text in WordPress?

There is no specific Ctrl key shortcut in WordPress for directly highlighting text. Highlighting is usually done manually by selecting text with your mouse or trackpad.

However, you can use Ctrl + A (Cmd + A on Mac) to select all text in a block or editor, which makes it easier to apply formatting like highlighting or color changes afterward.

How do you change link color in WordPress?

You can change link color in WordPress using your theme’s customization settings or custom CSS. This allows you to match link styles with your website design for a consistent look.

For step by step instructions, see our tutorial on how to change link color in WordPress.

We hope this guide helped you learn how to highlight text in WordPress. You may also want to see our step-by-step guide on how to customize colors in WordPress to make your website more aesthetically pleasing and our comparison of the best AI website builders for WordPress.

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