How to Show Registration Date in WordPress User Profiles: The Ultimate Guide

Displaying a user‘s registration or join date is an extremely valuable yet underutilized feature for WordPress sites.

Long-time, loyal users are a website‘s biggest asset. According to studies, existing users have higher engagement – they comment more, share more posts, and buy more products.

New community platforms like Reddit and Discord are benefiting tremendously by showing member join dates. This "Redditor for 2 years" flair builds credibility and loyalty.

In this ultimate guide, I‘ll share insider tips to highlight WordPress user registration dates across your site, understand key use cases, and leverage tenure to boost engagement.

Why Displaying Join Dates Matters

Before diving into the technical how-to, let‘s discuss why you should care about showing user registration dates:

Recognize Long-time Users

Displaying tenure recognizes valuable members who have built your community over the years. This improves loyalty and makes them feel valued.

JaneDoe
Registered: March 2015

Jane may have been commenting daily for 5 years. She deserves to be identified as an OG member vs someone who joined last week.

Identify Trust and Experience

Longer tenured members are seen as more knowledgeable and credible. Their opinions carry more weight.

Registration date signifies the experience level someone brings. Promote long-time users as experts.

Segment and Target Users

Dates allow segmenting users by tenure for special rewards or content.

Offer exclusive perks for members registered before 2020. Or send a custom onboarding course to new users.

Track Growth and Engagement

Registration trends show the growth and trajectory of your userbase over time.

Notice an uptick in signups after a major event or campaign. Watch new vs returning growth.

Key Use Cases and Examples

Here are some examples of where displaying registration date can have high impact:

• Forums – Identify trusted core members vs newbies. Segment access by join date.

• Membership Sites – Loyalty rewards for long-time subscribers. Recognize "Charter Members".

• Social Networks – Flair for early adopters. Badges for hitting member anniversaries.

• Info Products – Limit bonuses or discounts to users registered before X date.

• Software SaaS – Offer special pricing for legacy customers.

• Online Communities – Grant increasing privileges based on tenure.

Some exciting examples in the wild:

• Reddit shows "Redditor Since" on profiles.
• StackOverflow displays register date in user flair.
• Discord highlights member join dates in the UI.

Now let‘s see how to implement similar functionality with WordPress.

Displaying Registration Date in WordPress

When a user signs up on your WordPress site, their registration date is saved to the database in their wp_users record.

The date is stored in MySQL datetime format as user_registered.

To display this date, you need to:

1. Retrieve the user_registered value for the user.
2. Format that value into a human readable date.
3. Output the formatted date on the frontend.

There are 3 common ways to show a WordPress user‘s join date depending on where you want it visible:

1. In Admin Area Users Screen

Seeing a user‘s registration date right on the main Users admin screen is invaluable for segmentation and tracking trends over time.

The Admin Columns plugin makes this a cakewalk.

Pros:

• Quick at-a-glance view of user tenure.
• Sortable column.
• Works with any theme.
• Fine-grained control over column settings.

Cons:

• Only visible to admins.
• Additional plugin requirement.

Check the first section of this guide for step-by-step instructions on setting this up.

2. On User Profile Page

Displaying the join date on a user‘s profile page has fewer use cases, but can still be handy for reference.

A simple custom plugin with show_user_profile hooks lets you add tenure info on profile edit screens.

Pros:

• Also visible to user themselves.
• Matches native WordPress UI styling.

Cons:

• Only visible on profile page.
• Requires coding skill to set up.

See Method #2 earlier in this guide for sample code and implementation details.

3. Frontend Website

For public display to other users, shortcodes allow outputting tenure anywhere on the frontend of your site.

Works great in author boxes, user badges, member directories etc.

Pros:

• Visible publicly to highlight membership.
• Flexible placement via shortcodes.

Cons:

• Need shortcode in theme code or custom plugin.

The final section covers a simple approach to front-end shortcodes for registration date.

Best Practices for Displaying Join Date

Once you‘ve implemented user tenure via WordPress hooks, here are some tips for effectively surfacing that data:

Language and Terminology

Use clear verbiage like "Member Since", "User Since", "Registered On". Some creative options:

• Member for 2 years
• Redditor since 2015
• Joined us in 2017

Avoid ambiguity – make it obvious this represents a registration date.

Placement and Visual Design

Clearly display tenure in user profiles, author boxes, and member directories:

Jane Doe
Member since: May 24, 2014

avatar
bio 
content

For forums, show registration date right beside post author name:

[JaneDoe joined Jan 2015]
This new feature is awesome! 

Use typography like badges, labels, or underlines to emphasize tenure.

Privileges and Rewards

Leverage join date more than just a label – grant privileges, unlock content, or trigger rewards based on tenure milestones.

For example:

• Discount on subscription after 1 year
• Unlock "Legendary Member" forum after 5 years
• Earn "Oracle" badge after 10 years

Get creative in incentivizing the growth of your core userbase.

Privacy Concerns

Avoid displaying full registration dates, as it reveals user birth dates on sites requiring age verification.

Instead show the year or month + year. You can also let users opt out entirely.

Recap and Next Steps

Recognizing user tenure goes a long way in building loyalty and community.

In this guide, you learned:

• The strategic value of showing member registration dates.
• Use cases across forums, memberships, and social sites.
• How WordPress stores sign up dates in the database.
• 3 methods to display join dates – backend, profile, and frontend.
• Best practices for effectively showcasing tenure.

I hope you‘re now ready to highlight user loyalty across your WordPress site!

Let me know if you have any other questions about implementing or leveraging registration dates. I‘m happy to help any way I can.

Over to you now. Go excite your users!