VelocityEngine Documentation

Getting started

Requirements

• Self‑hosted WordPress 6.4 or higher
• PHP 8.2 or higher
• WooCommerce (optional — only needed for shop features)
• HTTPS recommended

1. Install the theme

1. In WordPress, go to Appearance → Themes → Add New → Upload Theme
2. Choose velocityengine.zip and click Install Now, then Activate.

2. Install VelocityEngine Core

After activating, a notice appears: “Install & activate VelocityEngine Core.” Click it — the companion plugin installs in one click (it's bundled in the theme). Core stores lead capture, Web Push, bundles and the SEO/FAQ post settings, so that data survives a future theme change.

Activating your licence

Your licence key enables automatic updates for the website you install on.

1. Go to Appearance → VE License
2. Paste the licence key from your purchase and click Activate license.
3. The screen confirms Active on this website, how many sites the key allows, and your support date.

Moving to another website

Each licence allows a set number of sites (Personal 1 · Business 3 · Agency unlimited). To free a slot, open Appearance → VE License on the old site and click Deactivate this website, then activate on the new one.

Starter sites

Don't start with a blank site — import a complete demo and edit from there.

1. Go to Appearance → Starter Sites
2. Pick a pack — North & Form (general store), Édité (fashion & beauty), Aera (health & wellness), or Paperlane (digital products) — and click Import this pack.

Each import adds sample product categories, products, blog posts, pages (Home, Blog, Privacy, Terms), a navigation menu, a filled footer, and a matching homepage — plus each pack's own colours and fonts.

Homepage Builder

Design your homepage from stacked, reorderable sections with a live preview.

Basics

• Add section — pick a type and click + Add section.
• Reorder — drag the handle (☰) on the left of a row.
• On/Off — toggle a section without deleting it.
• Live preview — the right pane updates as you edit; drag the divider to resize it.
• Click Save homepage when done.

Section types

Styling each section

Most sections share a Section style row:

• Subtitle (eyebrow) — a small label above the heading.
• Heading alignment and Content alignment — set independently (e.g. centre the heading, left‑align the cards).
• Background colour + Full width / Contained — a full‑width band or a boxed block.
• Padding — none / normal / large.

Card‑based sections add a Card / image style row: choose the text position — Text below, Text above or Text overlay — and the builder then shows only the alignment control that fits:

• Text below / Text above → a Left / Centre / Right alignment (the section's Content alignment).
• Text overlay → a 5‑point position: top‑left, top‑right, centre, bottom‑left, bottom‑right. The overlay text sits over the image, and (for products) the Add‑to‑cart button follows the same position.

The same row also has image ratio (1:1, 4:3, 3:4, 3:2, 16:9), rounded corners, an image shape for category tiles (square / round / oval), and — for products — a star‑rating toggle. Leave a section heading blank to hide it.

Showcase cards

Add a Showcase cards section, then + Add card for each card. Per card: choose an image (Media Library), an eyebrow label, a tagline, a title, and a button text + link. Set columns (2–4), image ratio, rounded/square, and whether to show the auto number badge.

Blog “All articles” link

The Blog Post Grid has an “All articles” link control: show or hide it, place it beside the heading or below the grid, and align it left / centre / right.

Product Page Builder

Reorder the blocks in the product summary column, with a live preview.

• Drag to reorder, or toggle blocks: title, rating, price, short description, add‑to‑cart + wishlist, product meta, bundle offer, trust badges, social share, and WooCommerce extensions (output injected by other plugins).
• Choose the gallery layout (thumbnail position) and configure related products.
• Trust badges use a Media Library picker for each badge image.

Single Post Builder

Arrange your article layout block by block, with a live preview.

Reorder / toggle: breadcrumbs, title, author & date, featured image, automatic table of contents, content, tags, share buttons, author box, previous/next navigation, related articles, an ad slot, and comments. You can also set an optional sidebar.

WooCommerce

Activate WooCommerce and run its setup wizard as usual; VelocityEngine styles the shop, cart, checkout and product pages automatically.

• Sticky Buy bar — a purchase bar appears as the shopper scrolls (toggle per the Product Page Builder / product options).
• Wishlist, product bundles, related products and upsells are supported.
• Sale badges, catalog controls and standard WooCommerce product types work as expected.
• The header cart and account icons appear only when WooCommerce is active.

Blog & publishing

VelocityEngine is a full publishing theme, not just a store.

• Archive and single layouts, author pages, search, and related posts are built in.
• Automatic table of contents, reading time, and a reading‑progress bar.
• Card meta (category, date, author, read time, comments) is controlled under Customize → VelocityEngine Styling → Blog / Archive.
• Mark an Editor's Pick in the post's “VelocityEngine — SEO & Distribution” box to feature it in builder sections and the Editor's Picks widget.

Header

Choose one of four layouts:

1. Logo left · menu centre · icons right
2. Logo right · menu centre · icons left
3. Logo centre · menu left · icons right
4. Logo centre · menu below‑left · icons right

• Header search — hidden, an icon that opens a box, or an always‑visible box. On phones a search box appears at the top of the opened menu.
• Cart & account icons show only with WooCommerce active.
• The Top Bar / Announcement section sets the slim bar above the header — promo text, contact, social icons (with their own colour), and colours/alignment.

Footer

• Top footer bar (optional) — paste a newsletter shortcode, a Google Map embed, or any HTML.
• Brand area — show the logo, a branding paragraph, an optional newsletter sign‑up, and social icons.
• Widget columns — 1 to 4 columns; add widgets under Appearance → Widgets → Footer Column 1–4.
• Bottom bar — copyright text (supports {year} and {name}), plus a menu and/or social icons.

Colours & typography

Set your brand colours (primary, accent, text, backgrounds), typography (heading & body fonts, sizes), button style (rounded / pill / square, solid / outline), header and footer colours, and layout radii. Changes preview live.

Widgets

VelocityEngine adds specialised widgets for sidebars and footer columns:

• Tabs — Popular / Social / Comments in one widget.
• Editor's Picks — posts you flagged as picks.
• Newsletter — an email sign‑up form.
• Most Reviewed Products and a Products widget (best‑selling / on‑sale).
• Posts by Category or Tag — pick the term from a dropdown.

Widget areas: Blog Sidebar, Footer Column 1–4, and Shop Filters (drop WooCommerce filter widgets here for shop/category pages).

SEO & structured data

VelocityEngine outputs JSON‑LD schema and social metadata automatically: Article / BlogPosting / NewsArticle, Product, Offers, Breadcrumbs, FAQ, Organization, plus Open Graph / social tags.

• Per post, set the article schema type and add FAQ pairs in the “VelocityEngine — SEO & Distribution” box (these render a visible FAQ + FAQPage schema).
• A lightweight SEO Analyzer is included.
• Using a dedicated SEO plugin? VelocityEngine avoids duplicate output when a supported SEO plugin is active.

SEO tools (Core)

With VelocityEngine Core active, a full SEO controls screen lives at Settings → VelocityEngine SEO:

• Search‑engine visibility — one‑click noindex for archive types: categories, tags, product categories/tags, author, date, search results and paginated pages. Individual categories/tags can be hidden on their own edit screen; posts, pages and products stay controlled per item in each editor's SEO box.
• Structured‑data readout — every post/page/product editor shows a “VelocityEngine — Structured data” box listing which JSON‑LD types will render (e.g. Article + Breadcrumb + FAQPage), with a one‑click Google Rich Results Test link.
• Redirects — a simple 301/302 manager (old path → new URL).
• 404 monitor — logs the broken URLs visitors and search engines actually hit, so you can redirect real broken links without a heavy site crawl.

Sitemaps & discovery

With VelocityEngine Core active you get a complete XML sitemap built in — no SEO plugin needed.

• Sitemap index at https://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml linking per‑type sub‑sitemaps (posts, pages, products, categories), auto‑paginated.
• Image entries for each URL — featured images plus WooCommerce product‑gallery images — so Google can discover your images.
• Last‑modified dates and automatic exclusion of noindexed pages (from the post's SEO box).
• Referenced automatically in robots.txt; it replaces WordPress's default /wp-sitemap.xml.

Submit to Google

1. Open Google Search Console → Sitemaps.
2. Enter sitemap.xml and click Submit.

Sponsor / image ads

Each ad slot (header, in‑content, footer, etc.) can show either your ad code (e.g. AdSense) or a sponsor image + link chosen from the Media Library — handy if you sell placements directly instead of running a network.

Leads & Web Push

With VelocityEngine Core active, the lead‑capture popup and Web Push opt‑in store data safely:

• View, export (CSV) or delete captured leads under Tools → VE Leads.
• Connect a mailing list by hooking the vecore_lead_captured action to your provider.
• Web Push requires a VAPID key configured in the theme settings.

Updates & licensing

• Enter your key once at Appearance → VE License. Updates then appear under Dashboard → Updates and Appearance → Themes / Plugins like any other update — click Update.
• The bundled VelocityEngine Core plugin updates through the same key.
• Updates are lifetime. Only support ends at your plan's date; renew for continued support.
• Updates flow only to an activated website. If you don't see an update, confirm the licence is active.

Troubleshooting

Theme ZIP won't upload

Your host may cap upload size. Install via SFTP into wp-content/themes/, or raise upload_max_filesize / post_max_size.

Demo import is missing images

Re‑run the import on a site with normal outbound internet. Images are bundled with the theme and load locally; if a host blocks that, they fall back to the theme CDN.

Builder preview looks stale

Clear your cache plugin. The builder preview is set to bypass caching, but an aggressive full‑page cache/CDN can still hold an old copy.

Licence says “not active” / no updates

Re‑activate at Appearance → VE License. Updates only reach an activated domain; deactivate an old site to free a slot if you've hit your site limit.

A WooCommerce layout looks off

Make sure WooCommerce and its templates are up to date, and clear cache. If a third‑party extension conflicts, check the Product Page Builder's WooCommerce extensions block is enabled.