smash balloon instagram feed plugin

April 21, 2023

8 Best Product Grid Plugins for WooCommerce (Free + Paid)

Are you looking for a WordPress plugin to show WooCommerce products in a grid?

Showing your products in a grid view provides a better user experience for customers. With the right plugin, you can easily customize and style your product category grid.

In this article, we will show you the best product grid plugins for WooCommerce.

Why Use a Product Grid Plugin for WooCommerce?

When you’re creating an online store, it is important to showcase your best products and make it easier for customers to view them.

With the right WooCommerce plugin, you can easily display multiple products or features from a single product in a grid view. This provides a better user experience and makes it easy for customers to interact with your products.

Besides that, a product grid plugin also offers more flexibility for customization. You can easily adjust the grid, choose the number of rows and columns, change the color, and more.

Some plugins will also let you add category filters. This way, users can simply search for a product and view them in a grid rather than explore each product in your WooCommerce store. It helps boost conversions and increase sales.

That said, let’s look at the best product category grid plugins for WooCommerce.

1. SeedProd

SeedProd is the best WordPress website builder and landing page plugin. It is used by over 1 million professionals.

The plugin offers a drag-and-drop builder that lets you create custom themes and page layouts. You get prebuilt templates and lots of customization options.

In the page builder, SeedProd offers exclusive WooCommerce blocks to customize your product page. You simply drag and drop the products grid block on your template.

The plugin lets you choose the number of columns in the grid. It also offers options to filter products and show all products, best-selling products, top-rated products, and more. Besides that, you can select the order of the products based on date, title, rating, ID, and more.

Other than that, SeedProd offers other blocks for customization. For instance, you can add images, optin forms, countdown timers, contact forms, and more to your product pages.

It also easily integrates with email marketing tools to help you collect leads and grow your email list.

Pricing: SeedProd prices start from $39.50 per year. There is also a free SeedProd Lite version you use to get started.

2. MonsterInsights

The MonsterInsights Google Analytics plugin

MonsterInsights is the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. It lets you set up Google Analytics in WordPress without editing code or hiring a developer. Plus, it automatically sets up advanced tracking on your website.

MonsterInsights offers a Popular Posts feature that lets you show your best-selling products in a grid view. You get to choose from prebuilt themes for your product grid.

The plugin also shows a preview of your theme. Besides that, you get plenty of customization options.

For instance, you can change the color and size of the title, prices, and ratings. It also gives you the option to select a layout for your grid, choose product count to display, and more.

Other than that, you can also exclude certain products or product categories from appearing in the MonsterInsights popular post widget on the page.

Pricing: MonsterInsights premium plans start from $99.50 per year. There is also a MonsterInsights Lite version you use for free and set up Google Analytics in WordPress.

3. ProductX

ProductX is another popular product grid plugin for WooCommerce. It lets you create WooCommerce stores using the drag-and-drop builder.

There are different blocks you can use to customize your store. Plus, the plugin offers a template toolkit, so you can quickly select a design and edit it according to your requirements.

ProductX offers different product category grid blocks. You can choose from 3 different variations to display products in a grid view. Besides that, there are multiple settings to edit the design of the product grid.

Other features offered by ProductX include advanced product filters, a progress bar, product comparison, whitelist items, and much more.

Pricing: ProductX is a paid WordPress plugin with prices starting from $49 per year for 1 site.

4. YITH WooCommerce Best Sellers

YITH WooCommerce Best Sellers is a great plugin to have on your online store and display top-selling products in a grid layout.

The plugin is easy to use and offers different options to customize your product category grid. For example, you can change the text, ratings, colors, and other details of any product in the grid. Plus, you can choose the number of rows and columns to display.

Using YITH WooCommerce Best Sellers, you can show your most popular products or top-selling product category. There is also a best-seller badge you can use to highlight a product and get more conversions.

Pricing: YITH WooCommerce Best Sellers will cost you $59.99 per year.

5. Smash Balloon Instagram Feed

Smash Balloon Instagram Feed is the best WordPress social media plugin. You can display content from different social media accounts on your WordPress website using the plugin.

If you’re using Instagram shopping to sell products online, then you can easily display items on your WordPress website using Smash Balloon’s Instagram Feeds plugin.

You can simply connect your Instagram account with the WooCommerce store. After that, display product feeds as grids, carousels, masonry, and other layouts.

The plugin also lets you link each Instagram post to a page on your WooCommere website. This way, users will land on the product page and easily make a purchase.

With Smash Balloon, you get full control over the appearance of your social media feeds. There are options to change the width, height, number of images, and more for your Instagram shoppable feed.

Pricing: You can get Smash Balloon Instagram Feed plugin for $49 per year.

6. Product Carousel Slider & Grid Ultimate for WooCommerce

Product carousel slider and grid ultimate

Product Carousel Slider & Grid Ultimate for WooCommerce is a free WordPress plugin that lets you create attractive product grids, carousels, and sliders.

The plugin offers built-in themes for carousels and grids. Plus, it lets you customize the grid by choosing the number of products to display per page, showing a header title, and controlling the image sizes. The plugin also gives you settings for selecting columns and rows and enabling pagination.

You can then choose which products to show in the grid. There are multiple options to choose from, like the latest products, older products, and featured products. After creating the product grid, you can easily add them anywhere on your WooCommerce store using shortcodes.

Besides that, there are options to show different badges on products. For instance, you display a sales badge, featured badge, discount badge, and sold-out badge in your product grid. You can also edit the style settings and change the product title font, color, ratings, and more.

Pricing: You can use the Product Carousel Slider & Grid Ultimate for WooCommerce plugin for free.

7. Grid/List View for WooCommerce

Grid/List View for WooCommerce is the next product category grid plugin on our list. The plugin is a great free solution for business owners looking to create simple product grids and lists.

You get to choose from 2 default styles, which include a grid or list layout. Besides that, there are basic options to customize your product grid. You can choose how many products to display and where to position the product count.

Sadly, there is no drag-and-drop customization option as you’d get in SeedProd. However, the plugin offers a wide variety of buttons to choose from for your WooCommerce product grid.

Pricing: Grid/List View for WooCommerce is a free-to-use plugin.

8. Product Categories Designs for WooCommerce

Product Categories Designs for WooCommerce is the most basic WordPress plugin for creating product grids and sliders.

If you have different product categories on your WooCommerce store, then all you have to do is install the plugin and use shortcodes to display the products.

There are no customization options or additional settings that you’ll find in your WordPress dashboard. Everything is controlled through shortcodes. You can use different shortcodes for choosing the number of columns, order of product categories, design of the product grid, and more.

However, if you’re looking for more customization features and ease of use, then you can use any other plugin on our list, like SeedProd or MonsterInsights.

Pricing: You can get started with Product Categories Designs for WooCommerce for free.

Which is the Best Product Grid Plugin for WooCommerce?

In our experience, SeedProd is the best product grid plugin for WooCommerce. It is super easy to use because it offers a drag-and-drop builder with lots of template customization for your site and pages.

You can create stunning WooCommmerce pages with customized product grids that will help boost conversions. The plugin also offers tons of options to edit and change the appearance of your product category grids.

That’s not all, SeedProd also integrates with popular email marketing services, which helps grow your email list.

Bonus: If you’re looking to grow your WooCommerce store, then we also recommend that you try FunnelKit. It’s one of the best WooCommerce plugins to grow your store revenue.

We hope this article helped you pick the best product grid plugin for WooCommerce. You may also want to see our guide on WooCommerce SEO made easy and the best live chat software for small businesses.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 8 Best Product Grid Plugins for WooCommerce (Free + Paid) first appeared on WPBeginner.

March 9, 2023

How to Easily Create a Restaurant Website with WordPress

Do you want to create a restaurant website with WordPress?

A restaurant website can help attract new customers and grow your business. It can also provide a better experience for your existing customers and keep them coming back to your restaurant, cafe, takeaway, or similar business.

In this article, we will show you how to create a restaurant website with WordPress.

How to easily create a restaurant website with WordPress

Why Create a Restaurant Website?

A website is one of the best ways to market your restaurant to new customers and provide a better experience for your existing clients.

By creating an online presence for your restaurant, you can introduce your business to people who are looking for venues and food just like yours.

After a potential customer discovers your business, a professionally-designed and helpful restaurant website will tell them everything they need to know about your business. They can then decide whether your restaurant is right for them.

Even if you have lots of loyal customers and a positive reputation in the local area, a restaurant website can help you improve the customer experience.

For example, it can allow customers to book a table online, send you questions using a convenient contact form, check out the latest menu, and much more.

An example of a restaurant online booking form

In this way, a restaurant website can keep your customers happy, so they carry on visiting you for months, or even years to come.

That said, let’s see how you can easily create a restaurant website with WordPress.

Which Is the Best Website Builder for Your Restaurant?

There are many website builders that can help you create a restaurant website but we recommend using WordPress.

According to our blogging research statistics, WordPress is the most popular website platform in the world. It powers nearly 43% of all websites on the internet including many top restaurant websites.

WordPress is also open-source and free. For more on this topic, see our article on why WordPress is free.

However, it’s important to realize that there are two types of WordPress software, so you don’t choose the wrong one.

First, there is WordPress.com, which is a blog hosting platform. Then, there is WordPress.org which is also known as self-hosted WordPress.

For a detailed comparison, you can see our guide on the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

For a restaurant website, we recommend using WordPress.org because it gives you complete ownership of your site and allows you to install third-party plugins, including plenty that are designed specifically for restaurant owners.

To learn more about why we recommend WordPress to all our readers, please see our complete WordPress review with pros and cons.

Step 1. Setting Up Your Restaurant Website

To create a WordPress website you’ll need a domain name and web hosting.

A domain name is your website’s address on the internet. This is what customers will type into their browsers to reach your website, such as justeat.com or tacobell.com.

Web hosting is where your website lives online. To help you out, we’ve hand-picked some of the best WordPress hosting that you can buy for a restaurant website.

Although the WordPress software is free, hosting and domain names are where the costs can really start to add up.

A domain name typically costs $14.99/year and hosting costs start from $7.99/month. This is a lot for restaurants that already have bills and expenses to pay.

Thankfully, Bluehost has offers a free domain name, and our readers can get 60% off on web hosting. Bluehost is one of the largest hosting companies in the world, and an official WordPress-recommended hosting partner.

They’re also offering our readers a free SSL certificate. If you want to accept payments online, then an SSL certificate will help keep the customer’s credit and debit card information safe.

You can click the button below to get started for as little as $2.75 per month.

→ Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer ←

Once there, you will need to go to the Bluehost website in a new tab and click on the green ‘Get Started Now’ button.

Bluehost WordPress Hosting offer for WPBeginner Users

This will bring you to a pricing page where you can choose a hosting plan for your website.

We recommend choosing a Basic or Plus plan, as they’re the most popular web hosting plans among our readers.

After selecting a plan, click on ‘Continue.’

On the next screen, you’ll need to choose a domain name.

Choosing a domain name for your restaurant website

Ideally, the domain name will be easy to pronounce and spell, easy to remember, and related to your business. The name of your restaurant is a great place to start, but sometimes that domain may already be taken by another business.

In that case, you can try extending the domain name by adding your restaurant’s location, your own name, or the type of food you serve.

Need help choosing a domain name for your restaurant website? See these tips and tools on how to choose the best domain name.

After choosing a name, click on the ‘Next’ button to continue.

Now you’ll need to provide your account information such as your name and email address. After that, you’ll also see optional extras that you can purchase.

We generally don’t recommend purchasing these extras straight away, as you can always add them later on if you need them.

After that, simply type in your payment information to complete the purchase.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll get an email with instructions on how to login to your web hosting control panel. This is your hosting account dashboard where you can manage your restaurant website, including setting up email notifications and asking for WordPress support.

It’s also where you’ll install the WordPress software.

Step 2. Create a New WordPress Website

When you signup with Bluehost using our link, Bluehost installs WordPress on your domain name automatically.

If you want to create a different WordPress website, then you can simply click on the ‘My Sites’ tab in the Bluehost dashboard.

Next, just click on the ‘Add Site’ button and select ‘Create New Site.’

Creating a new restaurant website using Bluehost

The Bluehost wizard will now guide you through the setup process.

First, you’ll need to type in a site title and optional tagline.

Adding a site title and tagline to your new restaurant website

Click on the ‘Next’ button to continue.

After that, Bluehost will ask you to select a domain name and path for your restaurant website. If you’ve already purchased a domain name, then you can simply select it from the dropdown menu.

Choosing a domain for your new WordPress website

If you don’t have a domain name then you can buy one by visiting the ‘Domains’ page inside the Bluehost dashboard.

After choosing a domain name, you can leave the directory path blank and let Bluehost fill it in for you. The installer will also show a few must-have WordPress plugins that you may want to install on your restaurant website including OptinMonster.

After that, click on the ‘Next’ button and the installer will set up your restaurant site.

Once it’s finished, you’ll see a ‘WordPress installed successfully’ message with information about your new website. You can now go ahead and click on the ‘Log into WordPress’ button.

This will take you to your site’s admin area.

Log into your new WordPress website dashboard

You can also log in to the WordPress dashboard by simply going to yoursite.com/wp-admin/ directly from your browser.

If you’re using a different WordPress website host such as SiteGround, Hostinger, HostGator, or WP Engine, then you can see our complete guide on how to install WordPress for all the top hosting providers.

Once WordPress is setup, you’re ready to start building a five-star restaurant website.

Step 3. Select a Restaurant Theme

WordPress themes are professionally designed templates that change how your restaurant site looks and acts.

By default, each WordPress site comes with a basic theme. If you visit your website, then it will look something like this:

This is not very appealing for most customers, so you’ll usually want to replace the default WordPress theme.

There are lots of different premium and free WordPress business themes to choose from. You can generally categorize these as multipurpose WordPress themes, or niche industry themes.

Your typical restaurant website needs special features, like the ability to show a menu, photos, location information, business hours, and more.

With that in mind, it makes sense to look for a theme that’s designed for the food or hospitality industry. To help you out, we’ve collected the best WordPress restaurant themes.

You can also use a website and landing page builder plugin such as SeedProd.

SeedProd is the best drag and drop WordPress page builder and comes with built-in templates that you can use to build a professionally-designed restaurant website.

These templates include a menu, food photos, pricing, recipes, and more.

One of SeedProd's ready-made restaurant templates

Once you’ve chosen a restaurant theme, please see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress theme.

After installing your theme, you may want to customize it by going to Appearance » Customize in the WordPress dashboard.

This will launch the theme customizer where you can fine-tune the theme settings and see your changes in the live preview.

If you’re using one of the newer full site editing themes, then you’ll see the option for Appearance » Editor, which uses blocks similar to the content editor to customize your site.

Pro Tip: No matter what theme you’re using, neither the default WordPress customizer nor the full site editing offers a user-friendly drag and drop customization experience. For that reason, we recommend using a page builder like SeedProd to customize your theme.

Just remember that you can always return to this screen and continue customizing your theme. You can even completely change your WordPress theme at any point.

Step 4. Create a Custom Home Page

WordPress has two two default content types called posts and pages.

You’ll typically use posts to create articles and blogs. By default, the home page shows these posts in reverse chronological order, so the newest content appears at the top of the list.

You might use a blog to build a stronger relationship with their customers, improve your WordPress SEO, and get more traffic to your restaurant website. For example, you could write about recipes, share cooking tips, or blog about the latest restaurant industry news.

However, even if you plan to publish blog posts, you typically won’t show these on the home page. Instead, we recommend creating a custom home page that introduces your business to new visitors.

For step-by-step instructions on how to create an attention-grabbing restaurant home page, please see our guide on how to create a custom home page in WordPress.

Once you’re happy with the page’s design, it’s time to set it as your home page. To do this, go to Settings » Reading in the WordPress dashboard.

Adding a static home page to your WordPress website

Here, scroll to ‘Your homepage settings’ and select ‘A static page.’

Next, open the ‘Homepage’ dropdown and choose the page that you want to use.

Adding a static home page to your WordPress restaurant website

Then, simply scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on ‘Save Changes.’ Now, if you visit your website you’ll see the new home page in action.

If you are going to write blogs, then make sure you create a separate blog page to display your posts. If you don’t, then customers will struggle to find your latest WordPress blogs.

Step 5. Create an Online Restaurant Menu

Even long-term, loyal customers may want to look at your menu from time to time. By publishing your menu online, customers can look at it any time of day or night.

Publishing a menu can also help convince new customers to visit your restaurant.

It is possible to upload PDF files to your WordPress website. However, downloading a PDF menu can be difficult depending on the customer’s data plan and internet connection, and they’re non-responsive so they can be hard to read on some devices.

Plus, if you add new dishes or change your pricing, then you’ll also need to upload a completely new PDF.

For that reason, we recommend using SeedProd to add an online menu to your WordPress website. SeedProd also allows you to create a mobile responsive menu that looks great on every device.

One of SeedProd's professionally-designed restaurant templates

You can also easily update the menu as you add new dishes, change the prices, remove dishes, and more.

SeedProd even comes with a ‘Menu Sales Page’ template that’s perfect for creating a menu.

A restaurant menu, created using SeedProd

For detailed instructions, please see our guide on how to create an online restaurant menu.

Step 6. Set Up Online Food Ordering

Many restaurants allow customers to order food online. For example, you might give customers the option to pre-order their meal or place an order for delivery.

It may sound technical, but you can easily add online food ordering to your website using the WPForms plugin.

The WPForms form builder plugin for WordPress

WPForms is the best WordPress form builder that allows you to create online order forms for all kinds of products and services.

It even comes with a ready-made ‘Takeout Order Form’ that you can customize to suit your restaurant website.

Adding an online takeaway order form to your WordPress website

Every time someone completes the form, WPForms will notify you automatically so you can start working on that order straight away.

If you don’t want to accept cash on delivery, then WPForms supports all of the best payment gateways including PayPal and Stripe. This allows you to accept payments securely online, which is quick and convenient for your customers.

Accepting online payments for your restaurant website

For step-by-step instructions, please see our guide on how to set up food ordering for restaurants in WordPress.

Step 7. Add a Restaurant Booking Form

Today, most people expect to be able to book appointments through an automated system.

By adding a booking form to your restaurant website, you can accept reservations at any time of the day or night. You’ll never lose another customer just because you weren’t around to answer the phone.

Booking forms can also automate a lot of the booking process. This includes collecting payments and emailing your customers to remind them about their upcoming booking.

You can easily add a restaurant booking form to your website using WPForms. This plugin has a ready-made dinner reservation form template that you can customize for your restaurant.

How to accept online bookings on a restaurant website

WPForms also integrates with all of the top email marketing providers. This makes it easy to send reservation confirmation emails to your customers.

As their booking approaches, you can even send the customer a reminder email, ask them to share any dietary requirements, send a pre-order form, and more.

Creating email notifications for your booking form

To learn more about adding a reservation form to your WordPress website, please see our guide on how to create a booking form in WordPress.

Step 8. Add a Contact Us Form

Even if you use a WordPress appointment and booking plugin, some customers may still need to talk to you directly.

While visitors could ring your phone number or send a message to your business email address, we always recommend adding a contact form to your website.

Most of the best contact form plugins come with built-in spam protection, so you won’t get any contact form spam. A form will also collect consistent information from visitors, so you’ll have all the data you need to write a helpful reply.

The easiest way to add a contact form to your WordPress website is by using the free WPForms plugin.

This free plugin comes with a built-in Simple Contact Form template that you can quickly customize using the drag and drop editor.

Then, simply add the form to any page, post, or widget-ready area using the ready-made WPForms block.

For detailed instructions, see our guide on how to create a contact form in WordPress.

Step 9. Add a Navigation Menu

Once you’ve added some content to your restaurant website, you’ll want to help visitors find their way around those pages and posts by adding a navigation menu.

An example of a restaurant menu, created using WordPress

No matter what theme you’re using, WordPress makes it really easy to add menus and sub-menus to your restaurant website.

For a complete guide, please see our post on how to add a navigation menu.

Step 10. Add Social Proof to Your Restaurant Website

Social proof is one of the best ways to earn customer trust, and convince new people to visit your restaurant. After all, we’re more likely to try things that we see other people buying, using, or recommending.

People love sharing food photos on sites like Instagram and Facebook. With that in mind, we recommend adding social media feeds to your WordPress website.

Smash Balloon Instagram Feed is one of the best Instagram plugins for WordPress, and it allows you to easily show other people’s photos on your site.

Using this plugin, you can create a hashtag feed and show photos that customers have tagged your account in. This includes photos of your food, venue, and shots of customers having fun at your restaurant.

A food hashtag Instagram feed, created using Smash Balloon

For detailed step-by-step instructions, please see our guide on how to create a custom Instagram feed in WordPress.

If your customers regularly tweet about your restaurant, then Smash Balloon Twitter Feed also lets you create hashtag and mention feeds.

For more instructions on adding a Twitter feed to WordPress, see our guide on how to embed tweets in WordPress.

Step 11. Show Customer Reviews

Customer reviews and testimonials can provide visitors with more information, and may even solve any question or worries customers have about visiting your restaurant.

If you already have a Facebook page, then it’s easy to display your Facebook reviews in WordPress using Smash Balloon Facebook Feed.

Facebook reviews, embedded in a WordPress website

If you want to show reviews from other platforms like Yelp or Google My Business, then there’s also plenty of customer review plugins for WordPress that you can use.

These plugins will collect reviews automatically and then organize them into a nice layout on your restaurant website.

Customer reviews embedded on a WordPress website

If you do add a customer review page in WordPress, then don’t forget to add it to your navigation menu too.

Don’t have any reviews to feature on your website? Then it’s time to start asking for them.

WPForms has a a ready-made Restaurant Review Form template that you can add to your website.

A restaurant review form, created using WPForms

Bonus Tips to Grow Your Restaurant Website

Now that you have setup your restaurant website, here are some top tips that you can use to grow your online business:

Setup AIOSEO plugin to improve your website’s SEO ranking. There’s a free version available as well.
Follow our ultimate WordPress SEO guide for more tips to outrank your competitor.
See our proven tips to boost your website’s traffic.
Setup a business phone number to increase your bookings and create a business email address to make your business look more professional.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to create a restaurant website with WordPress. You may also want to see our ultimate WordPress security guide and our expert pick of the must have WordPress plugins that you should install on all business sites.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Easily Create a Restaurant Website with WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

June 27, 2022

How to Automatically Publish from WordPress to Instagram

Do you want to automatically publish from WordPress to Instagram?

Instagram is one of the largest social media sites in the world with about a billion active users. By sharing your blog posts to Instagram, you can reach more people and get them to visit your website.

In this article, we will show you how you can automatically post to Instagram whenever you publish a new WordPress post.

How to automatically publish from WordPress to Instagram

Why Automatically Publish From WordPress to Instagram?

As one of the largest social media websites in the world, many WordPress website owners use Instagram to connect with potential new readers, website visitors, and customers.

Once you have some followers on Instagram, you can use this social networking site to promote your WordPress blog. Every time you publish a blog post, it’s a good idea to let your Instagram followers know about your new content.

To make your blog post stand out on Instagram, you’ll need to add an eye-catching image and an interesting caption. While Instagram doesn’t allow clickable links in captions, you can link to your blog from your Instagram bio, so your followers can easily find your latest posts.

You can also add a link in bio page which lets you showcase more than link to your Instagram bio.

Since running an engaging Instagram account takes time and effort, you can save some of that time by automating the process of publishing to Instagram automatically.

That being said, let’s see how you can automatically post to Instagram whenever you publish a new WordPress blog post.

Automatically Publish from WordPress to Instagram

Uncanny Automator is the best WordPress automation plugin that helps you create automated workflows without having to write code.

It connects with more than 80 plugins and third-party apps, so you can build smart automation workflows that saves you time. For example, you can integrate Slack with WordPress, create a workflow that automatically posts to Facebook from WordPress, and much more.

The free version of Uncanny Automator comes with over 100 automation triggers and actions.

In this guide, we’ll be using the free version, so you can automatically publish from WordPress to Instagram even if you’re on a tight budget and just getting started. If you want to build more powerful and advanced workflows, then Uncanny Automator Pro includes over 400 triggers and actions.

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the Uncanny Automator plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, go to Automator » Settings. Then, simply click on ‘Connect your site.’

Uncanny Automator will now ask whether you want to upgrade to get more credits, triggers, and actions. If you do want to upgrade, then click on the ‘Upgrade to Pro now…’ button and follow the instructions to buy Uncanny Automator Pro.

If you want to automatically publish from WordPress to Instagram using the free version of Uncanny Automator, then simply click on ‘Connect your free account.’ You can always upgrade to Uncanny Automator Pro at a later date.

Uncanny Automator will now show a popup where you can create an account by typing in your name, email address, and the password that you want to use. After typing in this information, click on ‘Sign Up.’

After a few moments, Uncanny Automator will show a message confirming that you’ve set up the plugin.

Next, you need to click on ‘Return to dashboard.’

Before you can start automatically publishing from WordPress to Instagram, you’ll need to connect your Instagram account to Uncanny Automator.

Note: To post automatically, you’ll need an Instagram Business account that’s connected to a Facebook page for your business. Don’t already have an Instagram Business account? The good news is that it’s free. Here’s Instagram’s guide on how to convert a standard account into an Instagram Business account.

To connect Uncanny Automator to your Instagram account, go to Automator » Settings. Then, click on the ‘Premium integrations’ tab.

In the left-hand menu, go ahead and click on ‘Instagram.’

Since Instagram is owned by Facebook’s parent company, you’ll need to connect to the Facebook page that’s linked to your Instagram Business account.

To get started, click on the ‘Connect Facebook Pages’ button.

Connecting Uncanny Automator and Facebook

Uncanny Automator will now guide you through the process of connecting to your Facebook page. Once you’ve done that, Uncanny Automator will ask you to select the Instagram account that you want to use.

After choosing an account, you’ll need to select the actions that Uncanny Automator can take, and the information it can access on Instagram. Since we want to automatically publish from WordPress to Instagram, you’ll need to enable the first two options:

Access profile and posts from the Instagram account connected to your Page.
Upload media and create posts for the Instagram account connected to your Page.

After that, go ahead and click on the ‘Done’ button.

Once you’ve done that, Uncanny Automator will take you back to the WordPress dashboard.

You should now see that Uncanny Automator is connected to your Instagram account.

Connecting Uncanny Automator and Instagram

The next step is creating the workflow that will automatically publish from WordPress to Instagram. Uncanny Automator calls these workflows ‘recipes,’ and they’re made up of actions and triggers.

To build a recipe, go to Automator » Add New.

On this screen, you’ll be asked to select whether you want to create a ‘Logged-in’ recipe or an ‘Everyone’ recipe.

Blog posts can only be published by a user who has a WordPress account. With that in mind, click on ‘Logged-in users.’ Then, just click on the ‘Confirm’ button.

You can now start to build your Uncanny Automator recipe.

First, you’ll need to add a title by typing into the field that shows ‘Add Title’ by default.

We’ll call the recipe ‘Automatically Publish from WordPress to Instagram’, but you can use anything you want.

Creating a recipe to automatically post to Instagram

Next, you need to define the condition that will trigger the action. For our recipe, the trigger is someone publishing a new blog post.

To add a trigger, simply click on the WordPress button in the Triggers section.

The WordPress automated workflow triggers

You’ll now see a list of all the Uncanny Automator triggers.

In the ‘Search for triggers’ field, start typing the following: ‘A user publishes a type of post with a taxonomy term in a taxonomy‘.

When the right trigger appears, click on it to add it to your Uncanny Automator recipe.

Automatically posting from WordPress to Instagram

Next, you’ll need to decide the type of content that will trigger the recipe. Simply click on the Post Type dropdown and then choose between post, page, media, or any post type.

Since we want to post to Instagram every time someone publishes a new blog, you’ll typically want to click on ‘Post.’

Creating an automated workflow for Instagram

At this point, you can tell Uncanny Automator to only run this recipe for posts that have a certain category or tag. For example, you may only want to automatically post when a blog has the ‘announcement’ tag.

This gives you more granular control over the content that gets published to your Instagram account, while still getting the time-saving benefits of an automated workflow.

To limit this recipe to a specific tag or category, open the ‘Taxonomy’ dropdown. Here, you can click on either ‘Category’ or ‘Tag’

Adding categories and tags to an automated workflow

Once you’ve done that, click on the ‘Taxonomy term’ dropdown.

You can now click on any of the categories and tags to add them to your recipe.

When you’re happy with the information you’ve entered, click on ‘Save’ to save your changes. Uncanny Automator will now show a summary of the action that will trigger your recipe.

The next step is choosing the action that will happen every time you publish a new WordPress post. Start by clicking on the ‘Add action’ button.

Automatically publish from WordPress to Instagram with Uncanny Automator

Uncanny Automator will now show all the plugins and apps that you can use for the recipe.

You simply need to find ‘Instagram,’ and give it a click.

Once you’ve done that, click on the ‘Search for actions’ field. In this field, start typing in ‘Publish a photo to an Instagram Business account.’

When the right action appears, click to add it to your recipe.

Automatically publish a photo to Instagram

You’ll now see a new set of controls.

To start, we need to specify the image that Uncanny Automator will post to Instagram every time you publish a new WordPress post.

Sometimes you may want to use the same image for every post. For example, you might have used image editing software to create a special image advertising your website.

To use the same image every time, either type or copy/paste the image’s URL into the ‘Image URL or Media library ID’ field.

Adding an image URL to your automated workflow

To get an image’s URL, simply find the image in your WordPress media library.

You can then copy the value in the ‘File URL’ field, as you can see in the following image.

Another option is to use a different image for every WordPress post, so you’re not posting the same image to Instagram over and over again.

Every time you publish a blog, Uncanny Automator can post the blog’s featured image to Instagram. If you need help adding featured images to your posts, you can see our guide on how to add featured images or post thumbnails in WordPress.

To post the blog’s featured image to Instagram, click on the asterisk button next to the ‘Image URL or Media library ID’ field.

Post a featured image to Instagram from WordPress

Then, simply click on the ‘Search token’ field and start typing ‘post featured image URL.’

When the right token shows up, give it a click to add it to your recipe. Now, Uncanny Automator will get the post’s featured image and post it to Instagram automatically.

The next step is typing in the caption that Uncanny Automator will add to the Instagram post.

One method is to simply type text into the ‘Caption’ box, such as ‘We just published a new post. Read all about it on our blog!’ Uncanny Automator will then use this caption for every single Instagram post.

Posting a caption to Instagram automatically

Another option is to add tokens to the caption. Similar to dynamic text, Uncanny Automator will replace the token with a unique value that it gets from the blog post, such as the post’s title or URL.

This allows you to create more engaging and interesting captions, instead of posting the same caption over and over again.

To see all the different tokens that you can use, go ahead and click on the asterisk button.

In the dropdown menu, find ‘A user publishes…’ and then click on the arrow next to it.

Now, find the token that you want to add to your caption, and click on it.

To create more interesting and helpful captions, you may want to use a mix of plain text and tokens, as you can see in the following image.

When you’re happy with your recipe, click on the ‘Save’ button.

The final step is activating the recipe so that it will start automatically publishing from WordPress to Instagram.

To publish your automated workflow, find the ‘Recipe’ section towards the right side of the screen. Then, simply click on the slider to turn it from ‘Draft’ to ‘Live.’

Publishing an automated workflow in WordPress

Now every time someone publishes a new blog on your WordPress website, Uncanny Automator will make a new Instagram post automatically.

How to Get More Out of Your Instagram Feed

Automatically publishing your blog posts to Instagram is a great way to keep your Instagram content fresh and updated.

To get more attention to their Instagram accounts, often professional bloggers and online store owners will embed their Instagram feed on their websites.

This helps you add social proof, keep visitors longer on your site, increase engagement, and even boost sales.

The easiest way to embed Instagram feeds on WordPress is by using Smash Balloon Instagram Feed. It is the best Instagram plugin for WordPress and allows you to add Instagram content to your website automatically.

There’s a free version of the Instagram plugin that’s used by over 1 million websites.

Embedding an Instagram feed in WordPress

You can use Smash Balloon to customize exactly how your Instagram feed will look on your website, and the content it shows.

You can even sort feeds based on Instagram hashtags, show likes and comments, create a custom Instagram photo feed in WordPress, and more using its simple editor.

After creating your feed, you can add it to any page, post, or widget ready area simply by using the Instagram Feed block.

For more details, see our guide on how to easily embed Instagram in WordPress.

We hope this article helped you learn how to automatically publish from WordPress to Instagram. Next, you can see our guide on how to embed a Facebook video in WordPress, or see our expert pick of the best social media plugins for WordPress.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Automatically Publish from WordPress to Instagram first appeared on WPBeginner.

February 24, 2021January 8, 2023

How to Add Your Social Media Feeds to WordPress (Step by Step)

Do you want to add your social media feeds to a WordPress website?

Showing Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram feeds on WordPress can get you more followers and engagement on social media. It’s also a great way to keep your website fresh and interesting.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to add custom social media feeds to WordPress and even create a social wall that brings all your social content together in one place.

How to add your social media feeds to WordPress (Step by step)

Why Add Social Media Feeds to Your WordPress Site?

Billions of people use social media every day to connect with family, friends, and even brands. According to our marketing statistics research, people spend around 2 hours and 29 minutes on social media every day. That’s plenty of time to promote your content to existing followers and connect with new people.

If you have one or more social media accounts, then you’re already off to a good start. However, it’s also smart to add these social feeds to your WordPress website.

By embedding social media posts in WordPress, you can promote your different accounts to the people who visit your website. This can get you more likes, shares, and engagement.

Adding a Facebook social media feed in WordPress

If visitors like what they see, they might even decide to start following you on different social networks.

Once you’ve embedded a social feed, new posts will appear on your website automatically. This can be a great way to keep your website fresh and interesting, even for regular visitors.

If you run an online store, then a social media feed can even help you get more sales. In fact, 43% of people use social media to make purchasing decisions.

With the right plugin, you can display your Facebook page reviews in WordPress, or add shoppable Instagram images to your website.

Adding a shoppable link to an Instagram post

With that being said, let’s see how you can add different social media feeds to WordPress.

How to Add Social Media Feeds to WordPress

The best way to add social media feeds to your WordPress blog is by using Smash Balloon.

It’s the best social media feed plugin for WordPress and it’s trusted by over 1.5 million users. With this plugin, you don’t have to spend time dealing with jQuery code, APIs, or trying to arrange your social posts in a nice layout. Everything just works.

Smash Balloon has separate plugins for all the major social networks including YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. It even allows you to combine multiple social networks and show all of your posts in a single feed.

With that being said, let’s see how you can add different social feeds to your WordPress website. Simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the social network that you want to add.

Adding a Facebook Social Media Feed in WordPress
Adding an Instagram Social Media Feed in WordPress
Adding a Twitter Social Media Feed in WordPress
Adding a YouTube Social Media Feed in WordPress
Adding a Combined Social Wall in WordPress

Facebook is the most popular social media platform in the world, with 2.9 billion monthly active users. No matter whether you have a small business website, a personal blog, a WordPress membership website, or something else, it’s very likely that your target audience are familiar with Facebook.

When you add a Facebook feed to WordPress, new posts will appear on your website in real-time. Visitors can also like, share, and comment on your WordPress posts, so this is a great way to get more engagement on Facebook.

An example of an embedded Facebook feed, created using Smash Balloon

The Smash Balloon Custom Facebook Feed plugin allows you to embed Facebook videos in WordPress, show photos and videos, and more.

You can even create a custom lightbox popup so visitors can see your full-sized images and watch your Facebook videos, without having to leave your WordPress website.

An embedded Facebook video, seen in a lightbox on a WordPress website

If you host regular in-person or online events, then it’s a good idea to create them as Facebook events on your page or group. Visitors can then mark themselves as interested or going to the event, invite other people, and share the event on their own Facebook page.

Once you’ve added these events to Facebook, you can easily promote them to the people who visit your website. Simply create a feed of your upcoming Facebook events and then add it to your WordPress website.

To learn more, please see our guide on how to add a Facebook event calendar in WordPress.

Adding a Facebook event calendar to your WordPress website

No matter what kind of Facebook feed you create, you can fine-tune how that feed looks and acts using the intuitive Smash Balloon editor.

Here, you can change the feed’s color scheme, design a custom header, add ‘like’ and ‘load more’ buttons, and much more.

For detailed step-by-step instructions, please see our guide on how to create a custom Facebook feed in WordPress.

With more than 2 billion monthly active users, Instagram is a great place to promote your website, products, and services.

Depending on your industry, Instagram may even be the most important part of your social media strategy. For example, Instagram is particularly popular among top fashion blogs, lifestyle, cooking, and photography websites.

If you’re posting beautiful photos and engaging videos to Instagram, then it makes sense to post that content to WordPress too.

An Instagram photo feed, created using Smash Balloon

By adding your Instagram social feed to WordPress, you can offer visitors a highly engaging and visual experience directly on your website. This can increase pageviews and reduce bounce rate in WordPress.

You can add images in WordPress manually, but you’ll need to keep adding new photos as you post them to Instagram. This can take a lot of time and effort.

Since there’s no link between your WordPress website and your Instagram account, visitors can’t easily like or share these photos on Instagram. As a result, you may miss out on lots of social media engagement.

The easiest way to add an Instagram feed to WordPress is by using the Smash Balloon Instagram Feed plugin. This plugin allows you to embed a beautiful and professionally-designed Instagram feed on your website.

An example of an Instagram feed, created using Smash Balloon

The feed updates automatically every time you post to Instagram, so visitors always see the latest photos.

You can even show other people’s photos on your site by creating a hashtag feed or displaying the posts that other people have tagged your account in. This can be a powerful form of social proof that encourages people to trust your website or business.

In the following image you can see an example of an online store that uses a custom Instagram feed to show user-generated content.

An example of Instagram user-generated content

In this way, you can use a custom Instagram feed to create customer trust and make more money online.

For detailed step-by-step instructions, please see our guide on how to create a custom Instagram feed in WordPress.

WordPress lets you manually embed tweets in WordPress blog posts and pages using the built-in Twitter block.

A single tweet, embedded using the WordPress Twitter block

However, this block only lets you embed a single tweet at a time. This is a quick and easy method if you just want to show a small number of tweets. However, if you want to embed multiple tweets then we recommend using Smash Balloon Twitter Feed.

This plugin allows you to create a Twitter feed that updates automatically as you post new tweets. You can then add this feed to any page, post, or widget-ready area.

Adding a Twitter feed to your WordPress website

Smash Balloon Twitter Feed also lets you create hashtag feeds.

This is useful for adding context and third-party content to your blog posts. For example, if you’re starting a fashion blog then you might create feeds for popular fashion-related hashtags such as #lookbook or #OOTD.

Creating a hashtag Twitter feed in WordPress

You can even use Smash Balloon to show the Twitter feed from a third-party account. This is perfect if you have a relationship with an influencer or affiliate marketer, and want to show their tweets on your website.

For more instructions on adding a Twitter feed to WordPress, see our guide on how to embed tweets in WordPress.

Blog posts with videos get 83% more traffic than those without videos. With that in mind, we recommend adding your YouTube videos to WordPress, too.

If you run an online store using a plugin such as WooCommerce, then videos can even get you more sales. In fact, 88% of people have bought a product or service after watching a video.

If you’ve created any YouTube videos showing your products or services, then adding them to your website could boost your profits.

If you only want to add a small number of videos to your site, then it’s easy to embed YouTube videos in WordPress blog posts. However, if you want to show more than one video, then it’s difficult to create a nice gallery layout using the built-in blocks and tools alone.

That’s why we recommend embedding your YouTube channel feed using Feeds for YouTube by Smash Balloon.

Embedding a YouTube feed in WordPress using a free plugin

For step-by-step instructions, please see our guide on how to show the latest videos from your YouTube channel in WordPress.

After connecting WordPress to your YouTube channel, you can customize how the videos look with Smash Balloon’s user-friendly editor.

Customizing the YouTube video feed using Smash Balloon

When you’re happy with how the feed looks, you can easily add it to any page, post, or widget-ready area using shortcode.

The Smash Balloon plugin also comes with a ready-made Feeds for YouTube block.

The free plugin has everything you need to create a YouTube video gallery in WordPress, but if you want more advanced features, then there’s also a premium Smash Balloon YouTube Feed plugin that you can use.

This plugin allows you to show videos from your favorites list, embed live streams, and more.

So far, you’ve seen how to add individual feeds from different social media platforms. However, many websites have multiple social media accounts, such as a Facebook page, a YouTube channel, and a Twitter profile.

If you create unique content for each platform, then you may want to combine all of that content into a single social media feed. This kind of social wall can convince visitors that you have a big presence on social media, and that you’re creating all kinds of interesting and varied content across the different platforms.

This single feed can get you followers and engagement across multiple platforms. It’s also a good choice if you have limited space, and don’t want to fill up your website with lots of separate social media feeds.

If you want to combine several social media accounts into a single feed, then we recommend the Smash Balloon Social Wall plugin.

It’s the best social stream plugin for WordPress and allows you to combine Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube social content into a single feed.

A social wall, created using Smash Balloon

Already used the Smash Balloon plugins to create separate Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube feeds? Then you can add these feeds to your social wall with a few clicks.

Social Wall will then take your settings and automatically create a shortcode that you can add to any page, post, or widget-ready area. Simply publish your changes, and the social wall will appear on your website.

Note: To use this plugin, you’ll need to install and activate at least one of the Pro Smash Balloon plugins mentioned above. For example, if you wanted to show Facebook and Instagram content on your social wall, then you’ll need both the Social Post Feed and the Social Photo Feed plugins.

To get started, you’ll need to install and activate the Smash Balloon Social Wall plugin. For more information, please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once the plugin is installed and activated, go to Social Feeds » Create a Social Wall.

Simply select each feed that you want to add to the social wall.

For example, you can combine posts from your Instagram and Facebook accounts.

Adding multiple social feeds to a social wall

On this screen you can also connect any extra social accounts that you want to use.

Simply click on a ‘Connect…’ button and then follow the onscreen instructions to connect the social media account.

After that, click on the ‘Customize’ tab.

Here, you can change the number of posts to show in the social wall, the feed layout, how often it updates, and more.

How to customize a social wall in WordPress

There are other settings you can use to change the wall’s color scheme, background color, button text, and more. Most of these settings are fairly self-explanatory, so it’s worth looking through them to see what changes you want to make.

When you’re finished, click on ‘Save Changes’ to store your settings.

Once you’ve done that, click on the ‘Configure Wall’ tab. Here, you’ll see a shortcode that allows you to add the social wall to any page, post, or widget-ready area.

Configuring the social wall in WordPress

For more information about working with shortcodes, please see our guide on how to add a shortcode in WordPress.

After that, simply publish the page or post, or update the widget-ready area to make your social wall live.

We hope this article has helped you add social media feeds to WordPress. You may want to see our guide on how to create an email newsletter, or our expert pick of the best live chat software for small businesses.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Add Your Social Media Feeds to WordPress (Step by Step) first appeared on WPBeginner.

October 12, 2020February 16, 2023

How to Fix the Facebook and Instagram oEmbed Issue in WordPress

Do you want to learn how to fix the Facebook and Instagram oEmbed issue in WordPress?

If you’ve previously added Facebook or Instagram content to WordPress using the default oEmbed or Embed block, then this feature no longer works. This can cause errors and missing content on your WordPress website.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to fix the Facebook and Instagram embed issue, so visitors can enjoy social content on your WordPress website.

How to fix the Facebook and Instagram oEmbed issue in WordPress

What is the Facebook and Instagram oEmbed Issue in WordPress?

In the past, you could easily embed Instagram and Facebook posts in WordPress using a protocol known as oEmbed.

However, Facebook changed the way that oEmbed works so you can no longer easily embed videos, pictures, updates, and other content from Facebook or Instagram.

Instead, you now need to register an app and use a client token to get data from the Facebook Graph API, before you can embed Facebook or Instagram content on your WordPress blog.

This would take a lot of time and effort, especially if you want to show lots of different social posts across your website. With that in mind, the people behind WordPress decided to remove the Facebook and Instagram embed feature.

If you previously added any Facebook content to your website using oEmbed, it’ll now look something like the following image.

An example of an oEmbed error in WordPress

If you embedded any Instagram posts using oEmbed, then you’ll get a similar error.

This is a bad user experience, and some visitors may assume that your website is broken, no longer maintained, or that you’re not a trustworthy or reliable business.

There are ways to fix the problem manually. For example, you might go through each page and post and delete the embedded content. However, this would take a lot of time and effort, and there’s no guarantee you’ll manage to find every broken embed.

With that being said, let’s see how you can easily fix the Facebook and Instagram oEmbed issue on WordPress.

How to Fix the Facebook & Instagram oEmbed Issue

The easiest way to fix the oEmbed issue is by using one of the free Smash Balloon plugins.

If you want to embed Instagram posts in WordPress, then you’ll need the Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed plugin.

An instagram post, embedded in a WordPress website

Want to embed a Facebook post in WordPress? Then you can use the free Smash Balloon Social Post Feed plugin instead.

First, you need to install and activate the plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

After installing either plugin, simply head over to Instagram Feed » oEmbeds or Facebook Feed » oEmbeds, depending on the plugin you’re using.

We’re using the Social Photo Feed plugin in all our images, but the steps will be exactly the same no matter what plugin you’re using.

Enabling the oEmbed feature for Instagram and Facebook

On this screen, simply click on the ‘Enable’ button.

That’s it. You can now embed Facebook and Instagram posts on your WordPress website.

How to Embed Instagram or Facebook Posts in WordPress

Whether you’re using Facebook or Instagram, you can embed a specific post in any page, post, or widget-ready area, such as the sidebar.

One option is to open the page or post where you want to show the social content. Then, click on the ‘+’ icon and type in ‘Embed.’

When the right block appears, click to add it to the page or post.

Adding the Embed block to a WordPress page or post

In the ‘Embed’ field, simply paste the URL of the Instagram or Facebook post that you want to show on your website.

Then, click on ‘Embed.’

Embedding an Instagram post in WordPress

WordPress will now show that specific post. When you’re ready to make the post live, simply click on ‘Update’ or ‘Publish.’

Now when you visit the page, you’ll see the social media post live.

An example of an Instagram post in WordPress

Another option is adding the Instagram or Facebook post to a widget-ready area such as the sidebar. That way, you can promote the same post across every page of your website.

For example, you might embed your most popular Instagram post or a post promoting a sale or social media contest you’re using to grow your site.

Adding an Instagram post to a widget-ready area such as the WordPress sidebar

To add a Facebook or Instagram post to a widget-ready area, simply go to Appearance » Widgets and click on the blue ‘+’ button.

In the search bar, type in ‘Embed’ to find the right block.

When the ‘Embed’ block appears, drag it onto the area where you want to show the Facebook or Instagram post.

In the ‘Embed’ field, simply paste the URL of the Instagram or Facebook post that you want to show on your website. Then, click on ‘Embed.’

WordPress will now show that specific post.

If you’re happy with how it looks, then click on ‘Update’ to make it live.

Now, when you visit your website, you’ll see the Instagram or Facebook post live.

How to Add an Instagram or Facebook Feed to WordPress

With the free Smash Balloon plugins, it’s easy to fix the oEmbed issue so you can add Facebook and Instagram posts to your website.

This is great if you only want to embed a small number of posts or you want to control exactly where each social post appears on WordPress. However, you may also want to embed a Facebook or Instagram feed on your website.

By creating a feed, you can show all your latest posts in a nice layout. Even better, the feed will update automatically so visitors will always see the newest posts without you having to update your site manually.

This can keep your site fresh and interesting, even for regular visitors.

If you want to embed Instagram content in WordPress, then you can use the Smash Balloon Instagram Feed plugin.

An Instagram feed, created using Smash Balloon

Want to create a feed showing your latest Facebook status posts, videos, reviews, and more?

Then you can use the Smash Balloon Facebook Feed plugin.

Facebook reviews, embedded using Smash Balloon

Want to add both Facebook and Instagram feeds to your WordPress website? Then you may want to look at Smash Balloon Social Wall.

This powerful plugin lets you combine any feeds you’ve created using the Smash Balloon plugins, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube feeds, and more.

Creating a social media wall using Facebook and Instagram

For example, if you’ve set up the Facebook Feed and Instagram Feed plugins, then you can simply go to Social Feeds » Create a Social Wall in your WordPress dashboard.

Here, you’ll see all the different feeds you’ve created so far.

How to create a social media wall using multiple feeds

Simply select each feed that you want to add to the social wall.

For example, you can combine posts from your Instagram and Facebook accounts.

Combining Facebook and Instagram into a social wall

Small Balloon Social Wall will then create a shortcode that allows you to add the social wall to any page, post, or widget-ready area.

For more information about working with shortcodes, please see our guide on how to add a shortcode in WordPress.

Social media shortcode, created using the Smash Balloon plugin

After placing the shortcode, simply save or publish your changes to make them live.

Now, if you visit your website, you’ll see a social wall featuring all the latest posts from your different accounts and platforms.

We hope this article helped you learn how to fix the Facebook and Instagram oEmbed issue in WordPress. You may also want to see our expert pick of the best social media plugins for WordPress, and our guide on how to create an email newsletter.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Fix the Facebook and Instagram oEmbed Issue in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

July 3, 2020

7 Best Instagram Plugins for WordPress (Easy to Use)

Are you looking for the best Instagram plugins for WordPress?

Whether you want to display your Instagram photo feed, create an Instagram slider, add the Instagram icon with a link to your profile, or create an Instagram giveaway to grow your followers, this list is for you.

In this article, we’ve hand-picked the best Instagram plugins for WordPress to help you increase your followers and boost engagement.

1. Instagram Feed Pro

Instagram Feed Pro from Smash Balloon is the best Instagram feed plugin in the market. Over 1.3 million websites use the plugin to create custom Instagram photo feeds.

There is a free version of the plugin that lets easily create a custom Instagram social photo feed.

The free version comes with a lot of features built-in, but you can upgrade to the Pro version to unlock additional features like multiple layout choices: masonry grid, horizontal layout, carousel, and more.

You can also use the Pro version to display several different Instagram feeds on your site from multiple sources including #hashtag feeds. It also letsy ou create shoppable feeds and has lightbox popup option with built-in social sharing buttons.

You can easily add your Instagram feed to any post or page using the block editor or a sidebar widget. The plugin also supports Instagram stories and brings them to your WordPress site.

By far the best part about Smash Balloon’s Instagram plugin is their smart feed cache and backup functionality. This allows you to show Instagram photos on your site without slowing your site down, and your photos will show even if Instagram API goes down (which is a huge benefit).

For detailed instructions, see our guide on how to create custom Instagram photo feeds in WordPress (step by step).

2. RafflePress

RafflePress is a giveaway and rewards plugin for WordPress. You can integrate it with Instagram to grow your followers.

With RafflePress, it’s incredibly easy to set up a contest that prompts your visitors to take specific actions using Instagram. That might mean visiting your Instagram profile or viewing one of your Instagram posts.

Of course, you can also use RafflePress to get users to take other actions too.

For example, you could run a RafflePress giveaway or contest for your Instagram followers where they need to visit a specific page of your website. You could even ask them to join your email list in order to enter.

RafflePress is extremely to use and it’s by far the most feature-rich giveaway and contest plugin for WordPress. You can try the free version of RafflePress plugin to get started.

3. Revive Old Posts

Revive Old Posts is a social media scheduling plugin. It lets you easily share both old and new content on social networks, including Instagram.

You can set a custom schedule for your social media posts. If you don’t want to share all your posts, you can leave out content on your blog by setting a date range or by excluding certain categories or tags.

This plugin also has the ability to share photos from your media library on Instagram. You can even share new posts the moment they’re published and add custom UTM tags to your Instagram posts.

There is a free version of the plugin, too, but that only lets you share content on Facebook pages and Twitter.

4. Envira Gallery

Envira Gallery is a fast and easy to use WordPress photo gallery plugin.

It lets you create advanced photo and video galleries in WordPress with features like albums, lightbox popups, pagination, tagging, and more.

Envira comes with an Instagram Addon that lets you import your Instagram images into WordPress, so you can add it alongside your other photo galleries.

It’s up to you whether you want to bring the images onto your blog and have them open in a lightbox, or whether you want the images to link to your Instagram posts.

5. Soliloquy

Soliloquy is a very beginner friendly WordPress slider plugin that you can use to create responsive photo and video sliders.

It comes with a Dynamic slider addon that lets you add Instagram photos along with your featured blog post thumbnails, testimonials, and others in a single slider.

You can determine exactly what content from Instagram you want to use on your slider. For instance, you could include only photos with specific tags.

You can also control the speed of your sliders and tweak lots of other settings to match your website layout.

6. 10Web Social Photo Feed

10Web Social Photo Feed is quick to set up and lets you add Instagram feeds to any of your posts or pages. With the free version, you can choose from thumbnail images or regular sized ones. The premium version offers more options.

You can use 10Web Social Photo Feed to display your Instagram posts in your WordPress sidebar. There’s a built-in widget for this, making it easy and straightforward.

The free version lets you include single feeds from your Instagram account or from a specified hashtag. With the premium version, you can create mixed feeds from multiple hashtags.

The support team is helpful and quick to get back to queries, even from free users.

7. Simple Social Icons

Simple Social Icons lets you add social media icons in a sidebar widget. These icons have links to your profile on Instagram and other social networks. They make it very easy for your readers to find and follow you there.

Simple Social Icons is a very straightforward plugin that takes just moments to set up. It’s completely free, too.

With this plugin, you can customize the style and color of your icons and choose how to align them. Note that you can’t add more icons or change the order unless you use a filter.

We hope this article helped you find the best Instagram plugins for WordPress. You may also want to see our list of the must have WordPress plugins and our guide on how to increase your blog traffic.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 7 Best Instagram Plugins for WordPress (Easy to Use) appeared first on WPBeginner.

June 30, 2020August 25, 2023

How to Create a Custom Instagram Photo Feed in WordPress

Do you want to create a custom Instagram feed in WordPress?

An Instagram feed can keep your site fresh and engaging while also getting you more likes, shares, and Instagram followers.

In this article, we will show you how to create a custom Instagram photo feed for your WordPress website.

How to create a custom Instagram photo feed in WordPress

Why Include an Instagram Feed on Your WordPress Site?

Adding an Instagram feed on your WordPress site lets you show fresh content to your visitors without lots of extra work. It also encourages readers to follow you on Instagram.

Instead of manually adding images in the WordPress block editor, you can simply create a feed that updates automatically every time you post new photos to Instagram. You can even show other people’s photos on your site by creating a hashtag feed.

In the following image, you can see an example of a brand that uses a custom Instagram feed to show user-generated content.

An example of user-generated Instagram content

In this way, you can use a custom Instagram feed to provide valuable social proof and make more money online.

That being said, let’s see how you can create a custom Instagram photo feed in WordPress.

How to Create a Custom Instagram Photo Feed in WordPress

The easiest way to add an Instagram photo feed to your site is by using the Smash Balloon Instagram Feed plugin. It is the best Instagram plugin for WordPress that allows you to display content from your Instagram account in an instant.

It’s also the easiest way to fix the Facebook and Instagram oEmbed issue in WordPress.

We will cover several steps in our tutorial, and you can use the quick links below to jump to the different sections:

How to Connect an Instagram Account to WordPress
How to Customize Your Instagram Photo Feed
Showing a Feed of Your Instagram Photos in WordPress
Bonus: Let Customers Buy Your Products Through Instagram

How to Connect an Instagram Account to WordPress

First, you will need to install and activate the Smash Balloon Instagram Feed plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Note: In the guide, we are using the premium version of Smash Balloon, as it allows you to create a completely custom Instagram feed. with hashtag feeds and shoppable images. If you are just getting started or have a small budget, then there’s also a free Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed plugin.

After you’ve installed the plugin, head over to Instagram Feed » Settings.

You can now enter your Smash Balloon license key into the ‘License Key’ field.

Adding a license to Smash Balloon's Instagram plugin

You can find this information in the confirmation email you got when you purchased Smash Balloon and also in your Smash Balloon account.

After adding your license key, go ahead and click on the ‘Activate’ button.

Once you’ve done that, you are ready to create a custom Instagram feed. To get started, select Instagram Feed » All Feeds and then click on the ‘Add New’ button.

Creating an Instagram feed for WordPress

Smash Balloon will now show all the different types of Instagram feeds that you can create.

Simply select the type of feed you want to add to WordPress, and click on ‘Next’.

How to add an Instagram timeline feed to WordPress

If you just want to display your Instagram photos, then you can use a Personal Instagram account. However, you will need a Business Instagram account if you want to create a hashtag feed or show the posts that your account is tagged in.

Tip: Don’t have a Business Account? To convert your Personal Instagram account into a Business Account, simply follow Smash Balloon’s step-by-step instructions.

If you select ‘Publish Hashtag’, then you will need to type in the hashtags you want to use. To show multiple hashtags in the same feed, simply separate each hashtag with a comma.

Adding Instagram hashtags to your WordPress website

Once you have done that, just click on ‘Next’.

Do you want to show posts that your account is tagged in? You will need to select ‘Tagged Posts’ instead and then click on ‘Next’.

How to show tagged posts in a custom Instagram feed

No matter what kind of feed you are creating, you will need to connect WordPress to your Instagram account.

To get started, click on the ‘Add Source’ button.

Creating a custom Instagram photo feed in WordPress

After that, choose whether you want to show images from a personal or business account.

If you select the button next to ‘Personal’, then Smash Balloon won’t include the Instagram avatar and bio in your header by default. However, you can always add the Instagram avatar and bio manually in the plugin’s settings.

Choose between a personal and business Instagram account

After choosing ‘Personal’ or ‘Business’, just click on ‘Login with Facebook’.

You can now select the Instagram account that you want to feature on your WordPress website and click on ‘Next’.

After that, check the box next to the Facebook page that’s linked to the Instagram account you want to use.

With that done, you need to click on the ‘Next’ button.

You will now see a popup with all the information Instagram Feed Pro will have access to and the actions it can perform.

To restrict the plugin’s access to your Instagram account, simply click any of the switches to turn it from ‘Yes’ to ‘No’. Just be aware that this may affect the photos that appear on your WordPress blog or website.

With that in mind, we recommend leaving all the switches enabled. When you are happy with how the feed is set up, go ahead and click on ‘Done’.

Giving Smash Balloon access to your Instagram account

You will now see a popup with the Instagram account you just added to your website.

Simply check the box next to that account and then click on ‘Add’.

How to connect Instagram to WordPress using Smash Balloon

Instagram Feed Pro will now take you back to the Instagram Feeds » All Feeds screen.

To create a custom Instagram feed, just check the box next to the Instagram account that you want to use. Then, click on ‘Next’.

Creating a new Instagram feed in WordPress

The plugin will now create an Instagram photo feed that you can add to any page, post, or widget-ready area.

How to Customize Your Instagram Photo Feed

By default, Smash Balloon will open your feed in its editor, ready for you to customize.

On the right, you will see a preview of your Instagram photo feed. On the left-hand side are all the settings you can use to customize the social media feed.

How to create a custom Instagram feed with Smash Balloon

Most of these settings are self-explanatory, but we will quickly cover some key areas.

To change the layout, simply click on ‘Feed Layout’ in the left-hand menu. You can now choose from a Grid, Masonry, or Carousel layout.

Switching to a different Instagram layout

There is also a Highlighted layout that highlights every third photo by default.

As you click on the different options, the live preview will automatically update to show the new layout. This makes it easy to try different designs and find the one you prefer.

By default, Smash Balloon shows the same number of photos on desktop computers and mobile devices. You can preview how the Instagram feed will look on desktop computers, tablets, and smartphones using the row of buttons in the upper-right corner.

Previewing an Instagram feed on desktop, mobile, and tablet

Smartphones and tablets typically have smaller screens and less processing power, so you may want to show fewer Instagram photos and videos on mobile devices.

To do this, just type a different number into the ‘Mobile’ field under ‘Number of Posts’.

How to show a different number of Instagram posts on mobile

By default, Smash Ballon will split your photos into 4 columns on desktop, 2 columns on tablet devices, and a single column on mobile.

Do you want to use a different number of columns? Then just scroll to the ‘Columns’ section in the left-hand menu.

You can now type a new number into the Desktop, Tablet, or Mobile fields.

Showing a different number of columns in a custom Instagram feed

To make sure your Instagram feed looks good on mobile devices, it’s smart to view the mobile version of your WordPress website.

After making your changes, click on the ‘Customize’ link. This will take you back to the main Smash Balloon editor, ready for you to explore the next settings screen, which is ‘Color Scheme’.

Changing the Instagram feed color scheme

By default, Smash Balloon uses a color scheme inherited from your WordPress theme, but it also has ‘Light’ and ‘Dark’ themes that you may want to use for your Instagram feed.

You can even create your own color scheme by selecting ‘Custom’ and then using the settings to change the link color, background color, text color in WordPress, and more.

By default, Smash Balloon adds a header to the Instagram feed, which is your profile picture and the name of your page. This can provide some useful extra context so that visitors understand where these images are coming from.

To change how this section looks, return to the main settings screen and then select ‘Header’.

Adding a header to a custom Instagram photo feed

On this screen, you can change the background color, show your Instagram bio, change the header size, and more.

By default, the header includes your Instagram profile picture. However, you may want to show a different image, such as your site’s custom logo.

To change the profile picture, click on ‘Add Image’ under ‘Show custom avatar’. You can then either choose an image from the WordPress media library or upload a new photo.

You can also add a different bio. For example, you might add a call to action that encourages people to visit your Instagram page.

To create a unique Instagram bio, simply type into the ‘Add custom bio’ box.

Adding a custom Instagram bio to your WordPress website

When you are happy with how the header looks, click on the ‘Customize’ link to go back to the main settings screen.

Now, you need to click on ‘Posts’.

To start, you can switch between boxed and regular layouts for the individual posts inside the Instagram feed.

To do this, select ‘Post Style’.

Customizing an embedded Instagram photo feed

You can now click to select the layout you want to use.

If you select ‘Boxed’, then you can change the background color, add a box shadow, and increase the border radius to create curved corners.

Adding a box style to an embedded social media feed

When you are happy with your changes, just click on the ‘Posts’ link to return to the previous Smash Balloon screen.

This time, select ‘Images and Videos’.

Changing the resolution of an embedded Instagram feed

Smash Balloon automatically analyzes your Instagram photos and shows them at the best resolution. We recommend using these default settings, as they are designed to boost your WordPress speed and performance. However, you can make the Instagram images bigger or smaller if you need to.

To change the image size, simply open the ‘Resolution’ dropdown and choose one of the default WordPress image sizes from the list.

Changing the resolution for an embedded Instagram feed

Once again, click on the ‘Posts’ link to return to the previous screen.

This time, select ‘Caption’. On the next screen, you can show the Instagram caption next to each image by clicking on the ‘Enable’ slider.

Showing Instagram captions on your WordPress website

If you add Instagram captions to your feed, then you can change the text size and color and set a maximum text length.

With that done, just click on the ‘Posts’ link to return to the previous screen.

Showing social media captions on a website or blog

The next setting is ‘Like and Comment Summary’.

Here, you can add or hide the total number of likes and comments on each image. If your Instagram posts get a good amount of engagement, then these numbers can encourage people to visit your Instagram page or start following you on social media.

Showing social media comments and likes on a website or blog

As always, you need to click on ‘Posts’ to return to the earlier screen.

The final option is ‘Hover State’, which is the overlay that Smash Balloon adds to a post when you hover your mouse over it.

Customizing the hover state for an embedded social media photo feed

Here, you can choose the information that Smash Balloon shows when someone hovers over a post using the settings under ‘Information to display’.

You can also change the color of the hover overlay.

Adding a custom Instagram feed to WordPress

When you are happy with the changes you have made, click on the ‘Customize’ link.

This takes you back to the main Smash Balloon settings page, where you can click on ‘Load More Button’.

Adding a load more button to a custom Instagram photo feed in WordPress

Here, you can help the ‘Load More’ button stand out by changing its background color, text color, and hover state.

You can also try adding your own messaging to the button by typing into the ‘Text’ field.

Customizing the load more button on a custom Instagram photo feed

While we recommend leaving this button enabled, you can remove it. For example, you might encourage people to visit your Instagram by limiting the number of photos they can see on your site.

To remove the button, simply toggle off the ‘Enable’ slider so that it turns grey.

Removing the 'Load More' button on a custom Instagram photo feed

If visitors like what they see, they may decide to subscribe using the ‘Follow on Instagram’ button that appears below the embedded feed.

Since it’s such an important button, you might want to add some custom styling to help it stand out. To do this, select ‘Customize’ to return to the main settings screen. Then, select ‘Follow Button’ in the left-hand menu.

Here, you can change the button’s background color, hover state, and text color.

By default, the button shows a ‘Follow on Instagram’ label.

You can replace this with your own messaging by typing into the ‘Text’ field.

Adding your own messaging to an Instagram CTA button

Smash Balloon comes with a built-in lightbox that allows visitors to open your Instagram photos and videos without leaving your website.

To configure this feature, go back to the main Smash Balloon settings screen and then click on ‘Lightbox’.

Here, you can change how many comments Smash Balloon will show in the lightbox.

If you don’t want to use the lightbox feature, then you can disable it using the ‘Enable’ slider.

When you are happy with how the Instagram feed looks, don’t forget to click on ‘Save’ to store your changes.

You are now ready to add the Instagram feed to your WordPress website.

Showing a Feed of Your Instagram Photos in WordPress

You can add the custom Instagram feed to your website using a block, a widget, or a shortcode.

If you have created more than one feed using Smash Balloon, then you will need to know the feed’s code to use a widget or block.

To get this code, you must go to Instagram Feed » All Feeds and then copy the text under ‘Shortcode.’

In the following image, we will need to use instagram-feed feed=4.

Getting a shortcode for your custom Instagram feed

If you want to embed the Instagram feed in a page or post, then you can use the Instagram Feed block.

Just open the page or post where you want to embed your custom Instagram feed. Then, click on the ‘+’ icon to add a new block and start typing ‘Instagram Feed’.

When the right block appears, click to add it to the page or post.

Adding the Feeds for Instagram block to your WordPress website

The block will show one of your Instagram feeds by default. If you want to show a different Smash Balloon feed, then find ‘Shortcode Settings’ in the right-hand menu.

Here, simply add the shortcode and then click on ‘Apply Changes.’

Adding a social media feed to WordPress using shortcode

If you are happy with how the custom Instagram feed looks, then you can go ahead and publish or update the page.

Another option is to add the Instagram Feed widget to your website. This is a great way to show an Instagram feed on every page of your site. For example, you might add the Instagram widget to the WordPress theme’s sidebar or footer.

To add the Instagram Feed widget to your site, head over to Appearance » Widgets. You can then click on the blue ‘+’ icon towards the top of the screen.

Adding an Instagram feed to a widget-ready area

In the panel that appears, type in ‘Instagram Feed’ to find the right widget.

As you can see in the following image, there are two Instagram Feed widgets, so make sure you use the right one.

Adding the Instagram feed widget to a WordPress sidebar

Next, simply drag the widget onto the area where you want to show the Instagram feed, such as the sidebar or similar section.

The widget will automatically show one of the feeds you created using Smash Balloon. If this isn’t the custom Instagram feed you just created, then type the feed’s code into the ‘Shortcode Settings’ box.

After that, click on ‘Apply Changes.’

You can now make the widget live by clicking on the ‘Update’ button. For more information, please see our step-by-step guide on how to add and use widgets in WordPress.

An example of an embedded Instagram feed

Another option is embedding the Instagram feed on any page, post, or widget-ready area using a shortcode.

Simply go to Instagram Feed » All Feeds and copy the code in the ‘Shortcode’ column. You can now add this code to any Shortcode block. For help placing the shortcode, please see our guide on how to add a shortcode.

Are you using a block-enabled theme? Then you can use the full site editor to add the Instagram Feed block anywhere on your WordPress website.

In the dashboard, go to Appearance » Editor.

How to add an Instagram feed to WordPress using the full-site editor

By default, the full-site editor will show the theme’s home template.

If you want to add the Instagram feed to a different area, then click on either ‘Template’ or ‘Template Parts’.

Adding an Instagram feed to a WordPress template

The editor will now show a list of all the template parts that make up your WordPress theme.

Simply click on the template where you want to show the Instagram feed.

A list of templates, in the WordPress full-site editor (FSE)

WordPress will now show a preview of the design.

To edit this template, go ahead and click on the small pencil icon.

Editing the WordPress homepage template using the full-site editor

After choosing a template, just hover your mouse over the area where you want to add the Instagram photo feed.

Then, click on the blue ‘+’ button.

How to add a block to a template using full-site editor (FSE)

Once you have done that, you need to type in ‘Instagram Feed’.

When the right block appears, click to add it to the template.

Adding a Instagram feeds block using the full-site editor (FSE)

As always, Smash Balloon will show a feed by default. You can change this feed by adding a shortcode following the same process described above.

Bonus: Let Customers Buy Your Products Through Instagram

If you have an online store, then you can also use your custom Instagram feed to easily sell your products.

Smash Balloon Instagram Feed Pro allows you to tag your Instagram images with product links so that users are able to click on them and buy them directly instead of navigating through your product pages. This can increase sales and boost profits in your store.

How to add a shoppable link to an Instagram post

For more details, you can see our complete guide on how to add Instagram shoppable images in WordPress.

We hope this article helped you learn how to create a custom Instagram feed in WordPress. You might also want to see our comparison of the best WordPress giveaway plugins to grow your social following and learn how to create an email newsletter.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Create a Custom Instagram Photo Feed in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

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