How to Create a Custom Instagram Photo Feed in WordPress

Recently, one of our readers asked if it was possible to add a customized Instagram photo feed to their site?

Specifically, they wanted to customize the Instagram photo feed to only show select photos instead of all photos from their profile.

In this article, we’re going to show you exactly 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 add fresh content without a lot of work. It also encourages readers to follow you on Instagram.

Instead of adding photos manually to your site, you can simply upload them to Instagram, and they’ll appear on your website. You can also include other people’s photos by using a hashtag feed.

This could be a great way to show people using your products, providing valuable social proof that could help you make more money online.

How to Create a Custom Instagram Photo Feed in WordPress

To set up a custom Instagram photo feed on your site, you’ll 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.

This is the premium version of the free Instagram feed plugin which is used by over 1 million websites.

After you’ve installed the plugin, go to Instagram Feed » Settings page in your WordPress admin and click the License tab to enter your license key. You can find this in your Smash Balloon account.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button at the bottom after activating your license key.

Once you’ve activated your license, go to the ‘Configure’ tab and click the ‘Connect an Instagram Account’ button.

You’ll then see a popup asking you to choose whether you’re using a Personal or Business Instagram profile.

If you simply want to display a feed of your photos, you can use a Personal Instagram account. However, if you want to show a hashtag feed, you’ll need a Business Instagram account.

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

It’s free to create a Business Account with Instagram. You can switch back at any time in the Instagram app.

When you click the ‘Connect’ button in the WordPress dashboard, you simply need to follow the prompts and connect your account.

After that, you’ll see your account listed next to the ‘Instagram Accounts’ like this:

Note: You can connect more than one account. Later in this tutorial, we’ll look at how to show several different Instagram feeds on your site.

Showing a Feed of Your Instagram Photos in WordPress

If you want to keep your WordPress site looking fresh and up to date, it’s easy to add a feed of your latest Instagram photos. We’ll take a look at the basic method first, then cover how to customize your feed.

First, click the ‘Add to Primary Feed’ button next to your connected Instagram account:

After that, you can open up a post or page where you’re going to add your feed. Alternatively if you prefer, you can add it in a sidebar widget.

We’re going to create a new page under Pages » Add New for our feed.

Click the (+) symbol to add a new block, then select the ‘Instagram Feed’ block from the Widgets section:

Your Instagram feed will be instantly added to your page, with a Follow button:

If you are using the classic editor, then simply enter the shortcode [instagram-feed] where you want your feed.

You can use the shortcode or the Instagram Feed widget to add your Instagram posts in your sidebar or footer, too. Just go to Appearance » Widgets and drag the Instagram Feed widget to wherever you like.

Customizing Your Instagram Feed Style in WordPress

By default, your Instagram photos will be displayed in a four column grid. To begin with, users will see 20 photos from your account, but they can click ‘Load More’ to see additional photos.

The Instagram Feed plugin gives you full control over these settings.

To change how your Instagram Feed looks, go to Instagram Feed » Settings » Customize.

Here, you can change the width and height of your feed, switch the layout, change the number of photos, columns, and more.

To change the Layout, simply click on the option you want. We’re going to use a Highlight layout for our Instagram photos, with every 3rd photo highlighted.

You can also choose how many columns to split the photos into, and how many to display to begin with. We’ve chosen to have 6 photos in 3 columns.

Make sure you click the ‘Save Changes’ button at the bottom of the screen after making any changes.

Here’s how the Instagram feed now looks on our website:

Displaying a Hashtag, Tagged, or Mixed Instagram Feed in WordPress

Instagram Feed defaults to showing the most recent posts from your connected Instagram account.

In some cases, you might want to show something different. For instance, you might want to display Instagram posts from any account so long as they use a specific hashtag. This could be a great way to showcase photos from an event or conference.

You can change your feed type by going to Instagram Feed » Configure. Under Feed Type, you can switch to a hashtag or tagged feed. You can click the (?) icon next to an option for more information.

We’re going to switch to a hashtag feed by using the Public Hashtag option. We’ll order it by most recent posts:

Note: You can’t create a mixed feed here. A mixed feed is one that combines different types, such as photos from a user account plus photos from a hashtag. You can follow the instructions in the next part of the tutorial to create a feed like that.

Here’s how the feed now looks on our site:

Creating Multiple Instagram Feeds in WordPress

What if you want to include several different Instagram feeds on your WordPress site? That’s possible as well with few simple configurations.

First, go to Instagram Feed » Settings and click on the ‘Display Your Feed’ tab.

You’ll see a number of different settings that you can use within the [instagram-feed] shortcode.

Tip: If you only want to create one feed for your site, then you can change these settings under the Configure tab, as shown above.

If you have several user accounts connected, you can use [instagram-feed type="user" username="wpbeginner"] to specify an account. Change wpbeginner to the username you want.

You can also choose to create feeds based on hashtags here. In this case, you’ll need to use [instagram-feed type="hashtag" hashtag="#wpbeginner"] where #wpbeginner is your chosen hashtag.

Another option is to create a feed that has tagged a specific user account. This option is only available if your connected Instagram account in the plugin settings is a business account.

You can even use shortcodes to create a mixed feed that combines different feed types, such as your Instagram user account plus all photos with a specific hashtag.

If you’re using the Instagram Feed block in the WordPress visual editor, you don’t need to create the whole shortcode. You can simply add your shortcode settings in the block’s settings:

Make sure you click the ‘Apply Changes’ button after making changes here.

Other Popular Instagram Feed Settings in WordPress

You might be perfectly happy with the default display of your photos, as Instagram Feed does a great job without any customizations.

However, there are some common tweaks you may want to make depending on how you want to display your Instagram photos.

For instance, you might want to display just the photos without the captions. This is especially helpful if you’re adding the photos in a fairly narrow sidebar:

You can switch the captions off by adding showcaption="false" to your shortcode. Then, your photos will display like this:

You may want to filter posts if you’re using a hashtag feed. For instance, you might want to avoid posts that mention one of your competitors or posts that use rude words in the caption.

You can use excludewords="competitor, rude" in your shortcode. This will exclude any posts that use any of the words within the list of comma-separated words. Change “competitor” and “rude” to whatever words you want to exclude.

Another option you may want to use is to change the text of the Load More button. You can do this adding buttontext="See More Photos" to your shortcode. Simply replace “See More Photos” with the text you want to use.

There are lots of other settings you can use. Smash Balloon’s Instagram Feed plugin lets you tweak everything about how your Instagram photos display on your site.

If you want to see all the possible settings, just go to Instagram Feed » Settings » Display Your Feed to get the full list:

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 best email marketing services to increase your website 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 How to Create a Custom Instagram Photo Feed in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

June 30, 2020 at 05:30PM

How to Change the “Just Another WordPress Site” Text (Easy Way)

Does your site have the text “Just another WordPress site” in the header or title bar?

Often beginners don’t know how to change this tagline. But leaving it in place doesn’t look good. Luckily, it’s really easy to change this to something else or even remove it altogether.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to change the “just another WordPress site” text, step by step.

What is a WordPress Site’s Tagline?

A tagline is a WordPress site’s slogan or description. Many websites use a catchy phrase as their tagline to describe their website and brand.

By default, WordPress uses “Just another WordPress site” for your website’s tagline when you first create a website. Not all themes display the tagline, but many will.

You should definitely change this text from the default. In fact, doing so is on our list of the key things you should do after installing WordPress.

Here on WPBeginner, we use “Beginner’s Guide for WordPress” as our tagline. You can see it just below our navigation menu. It’s also in our site’s title tag in your browser.

You don’t have to have a tagline for your site at all.

Your site’s topic or mission might be clear from its domain name.

However, if your domain name isn’t clearly linked to your blogging niche, then adding a catchy tagline could be a good idea.

Method #1: Changing Your Tagline in WordPress’s Settings

The simplest way to change the “Just another WordPress site” tagline is in your WordPress site’s settings.

First, you’ll need to go to your WordPress dashboard. You can normally do this by adding /wp-admin to the end of your website’s domain name.

For instance, if your site is called example.com, then your WordPress dashboard is at example.com/wp-admin.

If you’re not already logged in, then WordPress will prompt you to log in.

Once logged in, you need to go to Settings » General in your dashboard, and you’ll see the tagline field there.

You can either change the tagline, or remove it entirely by clearing out the box.

For our example, we’re going to use ‘WordPress tips and tricks’ for our example website.

Once you’ve changed that, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the ‘Save Changes’ button.

Now, you can visit your site and see your new tagline in place:

Method #2: Changing Your Tagline in WordPress’s Theme Customizer

You can also change your tagline in the WordPress Theme Customizer.

To do so, go to Appearance » Customize in your WordPress dashboard.

The main part of your screen shows a preview of your website. Down the left hand side, you have a series of tabs that let you customize different aspects of your website.

First, you’ll need to look for a tab labeled Site Identity. This will normally be at or near the top.

Note: If you can’t see the Site Identity tab, expand other tabs to see if it’s nested under them. For instance, Site Identity is within the Header tab in the Astra theme.

Click on the Site Identity tab to expand it, and you’ll see a box where you can change your tagline.

In the theme we’re using, Button, we also have the option to turn off the display of the site’s title and tagline.

The theme customizer options are determined by the WordPress theme you’re using, so you may see different options here.

Once you’ve changed the tagline to whatever you want to use, click the ‘Publish’ button at the top of the screen.

Troubleshooting Your Tagline

Normally, changing your tagline goes smoothly. But what if you changed your tagline and the “Just another WordPress site” text is still showing up?

Wrong Tagline on Your Own Site

First, check that you actually saved your changes. Go back to Settings » General and see if your tagline is correct there. If necessary, change it again and click ‘Save Changes’ at the bottom of the page.

If the “Just another WordPress site” text is still appearing on your site itself, then try clearing your cache.

You could also try looking at your site on a different device or in a different browser to see if it’s a browser cache issue.

If the problem still persists, then you need to reach out to your WordPress hosting support for help.

Wrong Tagline on Google

What if the “Just another WordPress site” text is no longer on your website, but it still shows up in a Google search?

The best way to fix this is to with a Google Search Console account.

Simply type your homepage URL into the search bar at the top. Click the magnifying glass or press Enter on your keyboard to run the search.

You’ll now see details about the URL. Click the ‘Request Indexing’ link.

Google will then recrawl your page within the next few days, and then it should show the correct tagline, not the “Just Another WordPress Site” text.

Wrong Tagline on Facebook

If the “Just another WordPress site” text is still showing up on your Facebook posts, you may need to clear your Facebook cache. You can do this by going to the Sharing Debugger tool.

Simply enter the URL of your site and click the ‘Debug’ button.

You should see a section headed ‘When and how we last scraped the URL’. Click the ‘Scrape Again’ button at the top of this section. This should refresh the information that Facebook stores about your site.

Your website’s tagline should now display correctly when you share posts on Facebook.

We hope this article helped you learn how to change the “Just another WordPress site” text. If you’re just getting started with blogging, we recommend reading our beginner’s guide to the most common WordPress mistakes to avoid, and our expert pick of the must have WordPress plugins for all websites.

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 Change the “Just Another WordPress Site” Text (Easy Way) appeared first on WPBeginner.

June 29, 2020 at 04:45PM

9 Best WordPress RSS Feed Plugins Compared (2020)

Are you looking for the best WordPress RSS feed plugin for your website?

RSS feed plugins makes it easy to automatically pull content from other websites and display it on yours. They can also be used to boost engagement, drive traffic, and increase page views.

In this article, we’ll share our pick of the best WordPress RSS feed plugins that you can use on your website.

Why Use a WordPress RSS Feed Plugin?

RSS Feeds allow websites to publish content in an XML file format. This allows users to subscribe to content using RSS feed readers, like Feedly.

By default, WordPress publishes RSS feeds for your blog posts, categories, authors, and more.

Apart from reading, RSS feeds can also be used to pull content from one website and display it anywhere else.

You may want to use an RSS feed plugin to curate content from different websites that you like. You can also automatically pull latest content from social media websites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube to display them in WordPress.

While WordPress comes with a RSS widget built-in, it does not let you customize the display to add thumbnails, social buttons, etc. This is why most people use a RSS plugin for the added functionality.

That being said, let’s tale a look at some of the best WordPress RSS feed plugins that you can use.

1. WP RSS Aggregator

WP RSS Aggregator is the best WordPress plugin to turn a WordPress website into a content aggregator. It allows you to import, merge, and display RSS feeds on your WordPress website without any coding.

It allows you to fetch content from your other web properties, third-party sources, and other blogs. You can even import that content as blog posts in WordPress and store them in your WordPress database.

You can use it to fetch job listings, real-estate listings, news articles, or curate top posts from your favorite blogs. With their add-ons, you can even pull full content including images from RSS feeds that only include excerpts.

The plugin can be used for auto-blogging. However, using it to scrape full content from third-party websites may lead to copyright violation and legal trouble.

For detailed instructions, see our guide on how to fetch and display RSS feeds in WordPress.

Pricing: Starting from $59 per year with one year of support and updates.

2. Smash Balloon Instagram Feed

If you’re looking to embed latest Instagram content from your profile or Hashtag, then you need Smash Balloon Instagram Feeds plugin. Since Instagram doesn’t make it easy to use RSS feeds, this plugin uses their API to automatically display photos from your Instagram account in WordPress.

It is easy to use and comes with multiple layouts and styles. The plugin is mobile responsive by default which means it looks good on all devices and screen sizes.

Instagram Feeds also allows you to create custom Instagram feeds using Hashtags. You can also directly link your Instagram posts to product pages in WooCommerce to increase sales.

It also supports Instagram Stories, and you can display them in a lightbox popup on your website, resulting in more user engagement for your stories.

Pricing: They have a free Instagram feed plugin with limited features. Custom Instagram Feed Pro starts from $49 per year for personal plan to use on 1 site. You can also get all Smash Balloon plugins for unlimited sites at $299 per year.

3. Smash Balloon Custom Facebook Feed

Smash Balloon Custom Facebook Feed is the best Facebook feed plugin on the market. It allows you to easily display posts from your Facebook pages and groups.

Facebook decides your content’s reach based on your user engagement. This means that users will see more of your Facebook updates when they interact with it.

Adding your latest Facebook content feed to your WordPress site is an easy way to boost engagement. Smash Balloon’s Custom Facebook Feeds allows you to beautifully display latest posts from your Facebook groups and pages in WordPress.

It is easy to use, and you can connect as many groups and pages as you like. You can also merge feeds to create one feed or use multiple feeds in different areas of your website.

The plugin comes with multiple layouts and allows you to customize the appearance of your Facebook feed to match your website layout.

Pricing: They have a free Facebook feed plugin with limited features. Custom Facebook Feeds Pro starts from $49 per year for personal plan to use on 1 site. You can also get all Smash Balloon plugins for unlimited sites at $299 per year.

4. Feedzy RSS Feeds

Feedzy RSS Feeds is another excellent WordPress RSS feed to blog post plugin. It allows you to fetch content from unlimited RSS feeds and display them on your website.

Feedzy comes with several templates to control how you display feeds. You can rearrange post layout to your liking which makes content look native to your website.

It also integrates with your affiliate links allowing you to display products with your affiliate ID and make money by sending affiliate traffic to third party websites.

For those looking for auto-blogging features, Feedzy comes with an article spinner that uses WordAI to rephrase articles you import to your blog. (Note: that it will still be copyright infringement and may lead to legal issues).

Pricing: Starting from $59 per year. It also has a lifetime plan, which starts from $159.

5. Smash Balloon Twitter Feeds

Smash Balloon Twitter Feeds is the easiest way to display Twitter feeds on your WordPress website. It helps you add social proof, increases Twitter followers, and boosts engagement.

The plugin allows you to easily fetch Twitter feeds and display them on your site. It comes with beautiful layouts and styles, including list, grid style, carousel, and more.

You can create custom Twitter feeds by merging different accounts, hashtags, keywords, and more. It comes with infinite scroll and users can load more tweets as they scroll down.

It shows native Twitter engagement buttons such as: Like, retweet, and reply actions. All media and videos open in a lightbox popup, so your users never leave your website.

The plugin is lightning fast with built-in caching and looks great on all devices with responsive layout.

Pricing: They have a free Twitter feed plugin with limited features. Custom Twitter Feed Pro starts from $49 per year for personal plan to use on 1 site. You can also get all Smash Balloon plugins for unlimited sites at $299 per year.

6. Smash Balloon Feeds for YouTube

Smash Balloon Feeds for YouTube is the best YouTube feed plugin for WordPress. It allows you to showcase your YouTube videos on your website.

By default, you can easily embed videos in WordPress by simply pasting the URL of your YouTube video. However, this does not give you any design options, and you have to manually add each video.

With Smash Balloon’s YouTube feeds, you can automatically display latest videos on your website as soon as they are uploaded on YouTube.

The plugin comes with beautiful layout choices like the masonry grid layout, gallery layout, list, and more. All layouts are mobile-friendly and look great on smaller screens.

It also supports live streaming and allows you to automatically display a feed of upcoming and currently playing live streams from your channel.

You can create custom feeds by keywords, multiple channels, and combine feeds. It includes custom actions when YouTube video completes like displaying a link to a product page or displaying thumbnails of your other videos.

Pricing: They have a free YouTube feed plugin with limited features. Custom YouTube Feeds Pro starts from $49 per year for personal plan to use on 1 site. You can also get all Smash Balloon plugins for unlimited sites at $299 per year.

7. Featured Image in RSS Feed

Featured Image in RSS Feed makes it super easy to add featured image to your RSS feeds in WordPress without writing code. You can choose multiple styles for your post thumbnail or featured image.

It uses standard formatting options for the featured image, which allows news aggregators like Feedly to automatically detect and display it prominently. It also works with top email marketing services that support RSS to email list feature.

Pricing: The base plugin is free. There is a paid version with extra features starting from $59.88 / year for a single site license.

8. Super RSS Reader

Super RSS Reader is an excellent way to display content from multiple RSS feeds in your WordPress sidebar.

It comes with an easy to use widget. You can also display post titles as a news ticker, perfect for websites that want to show breaking news from other sources.

The widget also supports tabbed layout to display feeds from multiple sources. It includes featured image support, multiple styles, and color choices.

Pricing: Free

9. CBX RSS Feed for Custom Post Types

CBX RSS Feed for Custom Post Types is an easy way to display your custom post types feeds into your default WordPress feed.

By default, WordPress allows you to add RSS feed support for each custom post type. However, most people subscribing to your website will only get to see your main feed which only includes blog posts.

The plugin fixes this issue and allows you to merge your custom post type feeds into main WordPress feed. You can simply select which post types are displayed in your main RSS feed and save your changes.

Pricing: Free

We hope this article helped you find the best RSS feed plugins for your WordPress website. You may also want to see our comparison of the best WordPress page builder plugins and best live chat software for small business.

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 9 Best WordPress RSS Feed Plugins Compared (2020) appeared first on WPBeginner.

June 26, 2020 at 04:30PM

How to Add Tables in WordPress Posts and Pages (No HTML Required)

Do you want to add tables in WordPress posts and pages? Tables are a great way to display data in an understandable format.

In the past, you needed to use a plugin or HTML code to create a table in a WordPress post or page.

In this article, we’ll show you how to create tables in WordPress posts and pages without using a plugin or any HTML code. We’ll also cover how to create advanced tables in WordPress with sorting and search features.

Creating Tables in the WordPress Block Editor

WordPress makes it super easy to add tables using the default WordPress block editor.

Simply create a new post or page, or edit an existing one. Once inside the content editor, click on the (+) symbol to add a new block, then select ‘Table’.

You can find it under the ‘Formatting’ section ,or you can type ‘Table’ into the ‘Search for a block’ bar.

Next, you’ll be prompted to choose how many columns and rows you want for your table. Both figures default to 2.

Don’t worry if you’re not 100% about the exact count because you can always add/remove table columns and rows later.

We’ve created a table with 3 columns and 4 rows:

You can type in the table cells, and they’ll automatically resize depending on how much content is in each. If you’d prefer your cells to be fixed-width, then you can set this option on the right-hand side.

You can also add a table header or footer section here. In our example, we have added a header for our table, and we have also set the background color to gray under the ‘Color Settings’ tab.

If you want to add a new row or column, just click on a cell at the point in the table where you want to add it. Next, click the ‘Edit Table’ button.

Here, we’re adding a new column on the right hand side of our table:

You can also delete rows and columns in the same way. Just click on a cell in the row or column you want to remove, and select ‘Delete Row’ or ‘Delete Column’ from the ‘Edit Table’ menu.

By default, the text in your table’s columns is aligned to the left. You can change this by clicking in a column and then clicking the ‘Change Column Alignment’ button:

Here, we’ve applied center alignment to the three columns that have numbers:

You can also change the alignment of your whole table within the post or page by clicking the ‘Change alignment’ button and selecting an option from the list.

Note that these options can make your table display beyond the normal boundaries of your post area. Some may look odd on your site, so please make sure to preview your post or page to check how they appear.

Here’s our table set to ‘Wide Width’ as it appears on the site:

As you can see, it stretches out beyond the left and right margins of the post area.

The table tools built into the Gutenberg editor give you a lot of flexibility about how you display your tables.

You can use it to show your data to readers in an easy to understand format. However the table block doesn’t have certain advanced features like search filtering, custom sorting, etc.

It also doesn’t let you easily use the same table across multiple areas of your website such as sidebar widgets or other pages.

To create advanced tables, you need to use a WordPress table plugin.

Creating Tables Using the TablePress Plugin

TablePress is the best WordPress tables plugin on the market. It is 100% free, and it allows you to easily create and manage tables.

The best thing is that you can edit your table separately and even add a large number of rows.

TablePress also becomes necessary, if you are using the older classic WordPress editor which does not come with tables functionality.

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

You’ll then see a TablePress menu item in your WordPress dashboard. Go to TablePress » Add New to create a new table.

You’ll need to type in a name for your table and decide how many rows and columns you want. You can always add / remove table rows and columns later as well.

We’re going to create a table with 4 rows and 3 columns:

Once you have added the table name, rows, and columns, go ahead and click the ‘Add Table’ button to create your table.

Next, you’ll see a screen with your table’s information and an area where you can add content.

Simply type the data you want into the cells of your table. You can sort the columns of data using the arrows above them. These will sort in alphabetical or numerical order.

There are advanced options below the ‘Table Content’ area. In ‘Table Manipulation’, you can do things like adding, removing, and duplicating rows:

In ‘Table Options’, you can add a header and/or footer row, which won’t be sorted in with the data. You can also decide where to show the table name and description:

Finally, you can set various options in the ‘Features of the DataTables JavaScript library’ section. This allows you to create responsive tables that can be filtered, searched, and sorted by your readers.

Once you’re happy with your table, click ‘Save Changes’.

You can add your table to any post or page. Simply add the shortcode to a paragraph block or use the shortcode block.

If you’re using the classic editor, then simply add the shortcode straight into your post:

If you want to change your table in the future, you can come back to TablePress in your dashboard and make changes. Your table will be automatically updated in any posts and pages you’ve used it in.

TablePress also allows you to import data from spreadsheets and CSV files. Similarly, you can also export a TablePress table data into a CSV file which you can then open with any spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.

We hope this article helped you learn how to add tables in WordPress posts and pages without using HTML. You might also like our post on how to create an email newsletter, and how to make a contact form in 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 Add Tables in WordPress Posts and Pages (No HTML Required) appeared first on WPBeginner.

June 25, 2020 at 05:00PM