As a content creator, you’re probably active on social media platforms as well as on your website.
It can sometimes feel like two separate worlds that you’re trying to manage simultaneously.
But there is something you can do to help bridge that gap and connect your social media feeds with your WordPress site, leading to better brand awareness, more shares and followers, and more traffic to both your site and Instagram account.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through a couple of different methods to help you achieve this, including some answers to common questions.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Does Adding an Instagram Feed to Your Site Affect SEO?
If you’re wondering if adding your Instagram feed to your site will improve your SEO, the answer is simple: by increasing the amount of content on your site, you’re giving search engines more to index, which can lead to higher rankings.
In addition, having an Instagram feed on your site can help build social proof, which can also lead to higher rankings.
While adding your Instagram feed to your site isn’t a primary SEO strategy, it certainly won’t hurt your ranking, and might actually give you a slight SEO boost.
Why Should You Embed Instagram Feeds in WordPress?
There are a number of reasons why you might want to add an Instagram feed to your WordPress site.
Some of the most common reasons include:
-You want to increase brand awareness and reach a larger audience.
-You want to give visitors to your site more content to consume.
-You want to encourage social sharing and interaction.
-You want to increase traffic to both your website and your Instagram account.
-You have a visual brand and/or product or service.
Option 1—Use a WordPress Plugin to Embed Your Instagram Feed
The first method we’ll cover is using a WordPress plugin to embed your Instagram feed.
WordPress plugins are great because they’re easy to set up and use, and they offer a lot of customization options.
WordPress plugins are often free to use, with upgraded options available if you need them.
We’ll cover some popular plugins for embedding your Instagram feed in this section.
Step 1—Install a WordPress Plugin
There’s no shortage of Instagram feed plugins for WordPress, but here are a few of our favorites:
Juicer
The Juicer plugin is completely free to use, and offers an easy and aesthetically pleasing way to add your Instagram feed to your site.
It also allows you to aggregate multiple social media accounts into one feed beautifully displayed on your website.
It offers plenty of other customization options for layout and appearance, so you can make your feed fit your website perfectly.
Spotlight
Spotlight is another popular plugin for embedding your Instagram feed.
It offers a similar experience to Juicer, with a few preset templates for you to choose from, and options for buttons, pop-ups, and lightboxes.
WPZOOM Social Feed
This plugin is a lightweight, simple option with minimal features.
All you have to do is install and activate the plugin, login to your Instagram account, and your feed will be automatically added to your site.
Smash Balloon Social
Another great plugin option, Smash Balloon offers plenty of customization options to get you a high-quality, professional photo feed.
If you upgrade to their paid plan, they also offer video capability.
Step 2—Connect to Your Instagram Account
Once you’ve decided on a plugin to go with, you’ll need to connect your Instagram account.
This typically involves logging into your Instagram account and granting the plugin access to your content.
Depending on your plugin, you might also be able to connect multiple accounts as well as incorporate feeds from other social media sites.
After connecting your account, you can set up how you want your feed to look.
Play around with customization until you have the feed that you’re happy with.
You should also set up where you want your feed to display–you could have a dedicated photos page, for example, or set it as an element in your sidebar or on another existing page.
Option 2—Embed Your Instagram Feed Without a Plugin
If you don’t want to use a plugin for whatever reason, you’re not out of luck.
Thankfully, as long as you’re running WordPress version 5 and up, it’s super easy to embed your Instagram feed on your website.
And if you’re using an old version of WordPress, don’t worry—you can still embed your feed by running a little bit of code.
- Step 1—Generate Your Instagram Feed Embed Code First, you’ll want to log into your Instagram account and find the image or video that you want to embed. Make sure you copy the embed link or code and save it for later.
Step 2—Add the Embed Code to Your Site
Now that you have your embed code, you can add it to your website.
If you’re using an updated version of WordPress, you can actually add an Instagram block to your page layout.
That’s the easiest way to do it, but if you’re using an older version of the site editor, you can add a code block instead.
Now go ahead and paste your embed code from Instagram into the block, and you’re done!
Wrapping Up
If you’re looking for a way to add some visual interest to your website, an Instagram feed is a great solution.
It’s easy to set up, and with a little bit of customization, you can get it to look perfect.
Do you have any questions about how to add your Instagram feed to WordPress?
Let us know in the comments below!
