Social media integration is extremely beneficial for business websites, which makes it an important web development trend. In particular, embedding a social media feed is one of the ways to keep your website fresh, engage your audience, and encourage more leads. Discover how to add an Instagram feed to a WordPress website and which Instagram WordPress plugins can be very helpful in this task.
What is Instagram?
Instagram is a social networking service with a focus on photo and video sharing. It allows users to follow other users and see their recent posts in the feed, as well as like them or comment on them. One of the popular features is Instagram Stories, which allow users to share moments of their day that disappear after 24 hours.
Instagram is not just for individuals — businesses use it widely too. They showcase their products or services and create the aesthetics of their brands. This choice is not surprising, because 1 billion+ Instagram accounts worldwide are active every single month, 90% of users follow at least one business page, and 500 million+ accounts use Stories every day.
Why should you embed an Instagram feed on your WordPress website?
Instagram feeds are useful sources of content for your WordPress website, either from your own account or from other users. Here are some benefits of adding an Instagram feed to WordPress:
- Increase your brand reach. If you integrate WordPress with Instagram, users will see the Instagram content directly on your website and might follow you on Instagram.
- Add fresh content effortlssly. Your WordPress website will be constantly and automatically provided with the latest content.
- Keep visitors on your website longer. An interesting Instagram Photo Feed in WordPress captures the users’ attention, and your website’s average session duration increases.
- Build trust thanks to user-generated content. If your feed offers content that comes straight from the users, it has a special value that is recognized by marketing specialists.
- Spread the word about your brand. If you display photos from Instagram, users might want to share them with the hashtags related to your business, and their followers will see them.
- Add vibrancy to your website’s interface. Attractive, colorful, and ever-changing feeds play a special role in your website’s look.
How to add an Instagram feed to a WordPress website
It’s clear what the benefits are, but how do you add an Instagram feed to WordPress? As usual, there are a bunch of useful WordPress Instagram feed plugins that allow even non-technical users to embed Instagram content using a handy interface.
Best Instagram feed plugins for WordPress
Instagram Feed (free version)
The Instagram Feed plugin for WordPress is a popular free tool with 1+ million active installations. It allows you to add one or more feeds to your WordPress site. Within the same feed, you can use single or multiple public accounts. The plugin is responsive and mobile ready so the photos look good on any screen size. It offers great customization options so you can choose your galleries’ width, height, number of items, image size, and more.
Feed Them Social (free version)
The Feed Them Social plugin is not solely for embedding an Instagram feed on your WordPress website — it can also fetch content from Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. You can display as many feeds as you need, both from your own or from other public accounts. The content can appear in your WordPress posts, pages, website’s sidebars, or other areas. The plugin is flexible for customization. It is also optimized for mobile compatibility.
WPZOOM Social Feed Widget (free)
The WPZOOM Social Feed Widget provides you with a feature-rich widget to be installed anywhere on your website (footer, sidebar, WordPress posts or pages, and more). You choose the number of columns on the layout, the size of images, the spacing between them, etc. It is also possible to use full-width mode and show the feed in the form of a horizontal banner. The widget is responsive to mobile devices.
Enjoy Instagram (free)
The Enjoy Instagram plugin enables you to embed feeds from specific Instagram accounts or by hashtag. You can use the sidebar widget or the shortcode functionality to add your Instagram content. It’s easy to embed it into WordPress posts and pages. Your photos can be displayed in the form of attractive grids and carousels. One of the interesting features is the Lightbox effect to enable viewers to see larger versions of images.
WD 10Web Social Photo Feed (free version)
The WD 10Web Social Photo Feed is a user-friendly plugin that helps you bring Instagram feeds to your WordPress posts and pages. You can embed entire timelines via a shortcode or a special widget on your sidebar. It’s possible to display the content in multiple customizable layouts, use a powerful lightbox with HTML5 video support, and more. There is also the pro version of the plugin that unlocks more options like a masonry and blog style layout, mixed feeds, conditional filters, 15 transition effects in the lightbox, infinite scroll, etc.
Instagram Feed (premium)
The Instagram Feed is a multipurpose Instagram plugin with 60+ adjustable parameters and 10 color schemes. You can display photos from Instagram in WordPress from different sources by usernames, hashtags, locations, or photo URLs. The plugin is fully responsive and mobile friendly. Among other interesting features are options for infinite popup, call-to-action buttons, support for 12 languages, support for the Gutenberg editor, and more.
InstaLink (premium)
The InstaLink plugin offers three key ways to display Instagram photos on the WordPress website: by username, by hashtag, and by username filtered by hashtag. There are three ways to set up Instalink: WordPress shortcode, Visual Composer element, and WordPress widget. You can make a a responsive gallery, adjust the size of images, use multiple hashtags, turn the heading on and off, use the scrolling features, and more. The plugin supports 16 languages.
Instagram Feed Pro (premium)
The Instagram Feed Pro is a pro version of the free Instagram Feed plugin we have reviewed earlier in this post. Feed Pro is a highly customizable plugin. It has various built-in layout options for you to present your photos — grid, carousel, masonry, and highlight. You can display hashtag feeds, link Instagram posts to specific pages or products on your website, display Stories in a pop-up lightbox, etc. The plugin is compatible with the WPML (WordPress Multilingual) plugin that enables you to use translations for your feeds.
Embed an Instagram feed on WordPress with our help
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