How To Let WordPress Membership Site Members Track Their Progress Through Content
Discover how to allow your WordPress website users and visitors to track their progress through your website content with the free Lite LMS Progress Tracker plugin.
How To Track Progress Through WordPress Content With Lite LMS Progress Tracker
In this training, Chris Badgett walks through Lite LMS Progress Tracker, a free WordPress block plugin from LifterLMS that adds a customizable Mark Complete button to any post, page, or custom post type. You get a live demo of adding the block, customizing the button, redirecting on completion, and use cases for coaches, membership sites, and content creators who want progress tracking without a full LMS.
What You’ll Learn
- What Lite LMS Progress Tracker is and why LifterLMS built it as a free contribution to WordPress
- How to add the Progress Tracker block to any page, post, or custom post type in the WordPress block editor
- How to customize the button text, completion message, styling, and link redirect
- How to string pages together to build a simple anonymous course without requiring a login
- When to use the lightweight Progress Tracker versus the full LifterLMS platform
Key Takeaways
- Add progress tracking to a page in under a minute by inserting the Lite LMS Progress Tracker block from the block picker
- Use the Link option on the complete button to redirect visitors from page to page and build a simple content flow
- Rely on Lite LMS Progress Tracker for anonymous and non-course content, and use LifterLMS for durable per-user tracking, email capture, and course structure
- Give yourself permission to think about how you can add more value than anyone else to your learners, clients, and community
Frequently Asked Questions
Lite LMS Progress Tracker is a lightweight block that does not require a login, so it does not capture emails on its own. If you need email capture, use LifterLMS with a free course. When someone enrolls they create an account, so you get their email and can pass it to your CRM or email platform like MailChimp, ConvertKit, or self-hosted tools like Groundhog.
Yes. The Progress Tracker block can be added to any post, page, or custom post type that supports the WordPress block editor. If you have questions about a specific CPT, test it directly by adding the block, or submit a support ticket from your LifterLMS account. You can also use a LifterLMS course flexibly for non-traditional content and get progress tracking that way.
The plugin stores progress in the visitor’s browser cache. Progress persists across visits, so someone returning tomorrow will see what they already marked complete. If they clear their browser cache, progress is lost. For durable per-user tracking that survives cache clearing and works across devices, use full LifterLMS, which stores progress against the user account.
Yes. String together a series of pages, each with content and a Progress Tracker block that redirects to the next page on completion. Because the plugin does not require a login, visitors can move through the sequence and track completion without creating an account. This is a common ask for LifterLMS itself, and the Progress Tracker is a straightforward answer.
Yes, through a third-party plugin called WP Fusion. WP Fusion bridges LifterLMS to popular CRMs including Salesforce, so an event in your external sales system can trigger an enrollment inside LifterLMS. No custom development is required, and it is the recommended path when the sales side lives outside WordPress.
Not directly. LifterLMS Advanced Videos requires Vimeo, Wistia, or unlisted YouTube to power its full feature set. The workflow is to download the Zoom recording, upload it to your video host, and then add the video to a lesson. It is common for creators to record live sessions in Zoom and use those recordings as lesson content.
Yes. A recent LifterLMS certificates update allows students to make their earned certificates public and share the certificate URL anywhere, including LinkedIn. For a downloadable PDF version that can be attached to a LinkedIn post, add the LifterLMS PDFs add-on, which generates PDF certificates from the certificate template.
Full Webinar Transcript
Welcome To This Complimentary LifterLMS Training
Hello and welcome to this complimentary training by LifterLMS. I’m Chris Badgett, the CEO and co-founder of LifterLMS, and today we’re going to be doing a live demo of the new Lite LMS Progress Tracker block plugin that we’ve made as a contribution to the WordPress community.
This is going to be an interactive session, so if you have questions as I go, use the chat or the Q&A feature. If you’re watching this on YouTube, drop your comments there and I’ll be keeping an eye on questions there as well. This is going to be a presentation about the new block plugin called Lite LMS Progress Tracker: why we built it, what it is, and we’re going to do a live demo of what it’s all about.
What Is Lite LMS Progress Tracker
You don’t necessarily have to be using LifterLMS to use the Lite LMS Progress Tracker. Basically, it is a tool that you can use with the new modern WordPress block editor to allow people to track their progress through your website content.
Technically, you could build a super simple online course with this by having pages with videos on them, and then using the Lite LMS Progress Tracker block to place a Mark Complete button on each page. You can link the button to redirect to another page, so you can create a flow through your content. It’s also cool because it can be used by people who are not logged into your website. They do not have to be a logged-in user to track their progress through content, which is great for marketing and building trust before somebody enrolls in your free course or your paid course.
Who Lite LMS Progress Tracker Is For
This is really helpful for coaches, especially those doing things outside of course content. It also fits people building WordPress LMS sites for clients, membership site operators with a lot of content, and creators who offer courses and live workshops online.
It is super helpful for tracking progress through content outside of courses and the more traditional LMS use case. If you are a prolific content creator with lots of blog content, imagine you have cooking courses and recipes on your blog. You can let users mark that they have already made a recipe. If you do a lot of webinars with guest experts and you don’t really want to put all that content inside of a course, but your membership site is getting large, this is a great way for users to identify what they have already seen.
Setting Up A Sample Page For The Demo
For this demo, I’ve got the Kadence theme installed on a sample site with one of the Kadence starter sites, so we’re starting with a website that already has some content in it. To show how the block works, I’ll create a new page and call it Special Training, then publish it.
On the new page, I add a heading block that says Video One and center it. Then I grab a landscape video off of Vimeo and drop it in with a video embed block. If we look at our page, it is super simple: a title and a video. Now we want to allow users to indicate and keep track of what they have already seen.
How To Add The Progress Tracker Block To A Page
In the WordPress block editor, click the plus button to add a new block. If you just start typing the word LMS, you’ll see it: Lite LMS Progress Tracker by LifterLMS. You can also type the word course and you’ll see it. Type the word membership and you’ll see it. Type the word progress and you’ll see it too.
Think of it as a super small plugin that you don’t have to install the normal way. You just add a little bit of functionality, basically a new type of block, that you can use in the content you’re adding. Click Add Block, and it drops the block into your page. Hit Update, view the page, and you’ll see the Mark Complete button rendered on the front end.
Customize The Button Text And Completion Messages
Every part of the block is configurable. You can change the button language, for example rewriting it to say “Mark complete when finished,” or literally whatever you want.
You can also set two messages. Above the button, add a custom message like “Are you done here?” and center it. After the button is clicked, display a completion message in place of the button. In other words: the button says what you want, links where you want, shows one message before completion, and shows a different message after completion. That is the core of the block’s flexibility.
Redirect Visitors To Another Page On Completion
If you want to create a flow, use the Link option on the complete button and point it at another page on your website. For the demo, I linked the button to a services page. Because of that redirect, when a visitor clicks Mark Complete, the plugin logs completion and immediately sends them to the linked page.
By stringing pages together with these redirects, you can build a simple path or course, with each Mark Complete step pushing the visitor to the next piece of content.
Styling The Block With The Sidebar Settings
The block has a settings panel in the sidebar. From there, you can start modifying the design of the button, including the border radius and the different style variations. There are all kinds of colors you can adjust, and you can choose to open the link in a new tab. It’s a fully block-editor-native experience for tweaking the look.
Testing The Completion Flow In An Incognito Window
To see the visitor experience, I opened the page in an incognito window. There is the video, and the “Are you done here?” message above the button. When I click Mark Complete, the plugin records completion and, because I set the Link option, redirects me to the services page.
When I go back to the original page, the block now shows the completion message where the button used to be. I know I have already finished this. So if you’re a coach, step one might be to watch this video about your coaching program. When the viewer clicks the button, they land on your coaching services page, and if they ever return to the original page, they see they have already been through it.
Using Progress Tracker On A Blog Post
You can also drop the block onto a blog post. Imagine you have a recipe blog. Add the Progress Tracker block to the recipe post, use the outline style of the button, and change the text to something like “I’ve cooked this,” with a completion message that says “Mission complete.”
This time we don’t link the button anywhere. When you view the post, a visitor can indicate that they have already cooked this recipe, and the button flips to “Mission complete.” The concept is identical to the page example, and the use cases open up quickly for anyone with a large content archive.
How Lite LMS Progress Tracker Gets Installed
When you add the block from the block picker for the first time, WordPress installs the plugin for you in the background. If you look at your Plugins list afterward, Lite LMS Progress Tracker by LifterLMS is there.
You can also install it the traditional way. Do a Google search for Lite LMS Progress Tracker, or search from the WordPress plugin directory, and you can download and install it like any other plugin. Most people will discover it directly from the block editor when they’re trying to figure out how to track progress on a piece of content.
When To Use The Progress Tracker Versus Full LifterLMS
Lite LMS Progress Tracker is not for everybody. Some people need a full-blown learning management system like LifterLMS. Others already have LifterLMS or another membership plugin and don’t need this add-on.
The sweet spot is when you already have LifterLMS, or a different LMS or membership solution, and you want to track progress through content that lives outside of courses. Or you want the lightest possible way to add a Mark Complete button to a page or post. Just go to the top of any WordPress post, page, or custom post type, hit the plus button, type LMS, course, or membership, and you’ll find the block. It is completely free.
Capturing Emails With A LifterLMS Free Course
An attendee asked how they can get an email address when someone signs up. Lite LMS Progress Tracker is intentionally lightweight and does not require a login, so it does not collect emails on its own.
If you want to capture emails, use the full LifterLMS plugin. On our own Academy site we have an official quick start course for LifterLMS. When someone enrolls in that free course, we get their email, they get a student dashboard, and they can move through the training content. LifterLMS also has built-in notifications so you can get an email any time someone enrolls in a free or paid course, and you can pass that email address to a CRM or email marketing platform like MailChimp, ConvertKit, or a self-hosted tool like Groundhog.
Using LifterLMS Courses In Non-Traditional Ways
Another attendee asked whether the block works with custom post types, and it opens up a bigger point about how flexible a LifterLMS course really is. I have a hundred-plus of these webinars over the years, and I might create a course simply called Webinars. Inside that course, I would organize webinars about sales and marketing, and other topics, and then add individual webinars as lessons.
You can use the course structure to get all the progress tracking and give people a common way to go back and see what they’ve already done and pick up where they left off. You do not always have to use a course for a course. On the front end, if I don’t want the course information block or the instructor block on that Webinars course, I just remove those blocks. I have seen people use the course framework to build pay-per-view shows and digital download interfaces. Courses are more flexible than they look.
How Progress Gets Stored And What Clears It
Another attendee asked whether Lite LMS Progress Tracker remembers a user across sessions or only inside one session. The plugin stores progress in the visitor’s browser cache. If they leave and come back tomorrow, progress persists. If they clear their browser cache, they lose that progress.
With full LifterLMS this doesn’t happen, because the visitor is a user and progress is tracked in the system, not in the browser. That said, internet power users clear cache often, but a lot of people out in the world rarely clear their cache, so it doesn’t disappear as quickly as you might think. The plugin also answers a question I hear about LifterLMS a lot: how can I offer a course that people can take without creating an account? Use Lite LMS Progress Tracker, string together a set of pages, and you have a course anonymous visitors can take.
Connecting LifterLMS To Salesforce And External Payment Systems
An attendee asked whether payment links from Click & Pledge, which they use with Salesforce, could plug into LifterLMS. If you use an external sales system with Salesforce, the tool to reach for is WP Fusion.
WP Fusion is made by a third-party company. It allows you to connect LifterLMS to most popular CRMs, and Salesforce is one of them. If you want an event in your Salesforce ecosystem to trigger an enrollment in LifterLMS, WP Fusion builds that bridge without any advanced development or custom code.
Using Zoom Recordings With LifterLMS Advanced Videos
An attendee asked whether they could use a Zoom recording with the LifterLMS Advanced Videos add-on. You can, but not directly. Advanced Videos requires Vimeo, Wistia, or unlisted YouTube to get all of its features.
Zoom itself is not a video host, so the flow is: record in Zoom, download the recording, upload it to your video host, and then add the video to a lesson. It is not uncommon for course creators and coaches to create course content live the same way we are recording this webinar, and then use that recording as a lesson in a course. Combine Zoom, your video host, and LifterLMS, and add the Advanced Videos add-on if you want the fuller video learner experience.
Sharing LifterLMS Certificates On LinkedIn
An attendee asked whether earned certificates can be shared to LinkedIn. Yesterday we rolled out a new feature for LifterLMS certificates that lets students make their certificates public. Once they earn a certificate inside the learning management system, they can choose to share the certificate URL wherever they want, including LinkedIn.
One of our add-ons also generates PDF certificates. The LifterLMS PDFs add-on lets someone share a PDF version of their certificate on LinkedIn, and LinkedIn even accepts PDF post attachments. PDF posts tend to get a lot of engagement on LinkedIn, so there are two paths: use the new public certificates feature for a shareable URL, or add the PDFs add-on for a downloadable file.
Why LifterLMS Contributes Lite LMS To The WordPress Community
Lite LMS Progress Tracker is completely free. It is a contribution we’re making to the WordPress community based on our niche and area of expertise around learning through websites on the internet.
One of the questions we ask ourselves is: how do we add more value than anybody else to our community of WordPress professionals and education entrepreneurs? One of the ways we do that is by being a model of how to contribute to the community we are a part of, which is the WordPress community, and by helping with this new effort around the block editor. That is a good question I’d encourage you to ask about your own work: how can you add more value than anybody else to your learners, to your clients, to your people? That is what it is all about, and when you give yourself permission and time to think about it, you come up with cool ideas that can help everybody.
If you feel like it, I would really appreciate a review on the plugin listing. If you have further questions about this tool or LifterLMS in general, we are easy to get a hold of at team@lifterlms.com.
