If there’s two things in this world that we really love, it’s WordPress and Instagram. Unfortunately, they integrate together like oil and water! Adding an Instagram feed to your WordPress website can be a pain in the butt. If you’ve tried to get a simple Instagram feed to show on your WordPress website and have come up short, don’t worry, you’re definitely not the only one.
We feel your pain. And that’s why we’ve written up this guide. To show you, step by step, how to get your Instagram feed showing up on your site. We’re going to break it down in to the smallest, easiest steps and you’ll have your feed displaying on your website in no time.
Let’s get in to it.
Step 1: Install an Instagram feed plugin for WordPress
The very first thing we need to do is install a plugin. WordPress makes it really easy to embed a single Instagram image on to a page (just paste the link in to the post editor), but when it comes to displaying a feed, we unfortunately need a plugin.
Here are WP Geeks we’re brewing up an Instagram feed plugin for WordPress ourselves. We’re really excited to share it with the world, but unfortunately, we’re still polishing off the edges.
In the meantime, we’re not going to leave you hanging. And so, we recommend that you install the Instagram Feed plugin found on the WordPress.org plugin repository. Go ahead and download the plugin and then install and activate it. Once you’ve done that, let’s move on to the next step.
Step 2: Connect your Instagram account
In order for this plugin to work, it needs to be connected to your Instagram account. This is so that the website has permission to fetch and show images from Instagram.
Navigate to “Instagram Feed” on the WP Admin sidebar and click the link. You’ll immediately be taken to a screen which allows you to connect your Instagram account. Click the “Connect an Instagram Account” button and follow the steps to get your account connected.
Once you’re connected, let’s configure some settings.
Step 3: Configure your Instagram feed WordPress settings
Let’s go ahead and click on the “Customize” tab on the Instagram Feed settings page. You’re now able to manage the look and feel of the widget from this page and integrate the feed seamlessly to your theme.
Some of the more important customizations that you should take in to consideration here are:
- Number of images – How many images should be displayed on the feed?
- Width and height of the feed – This should fit your WordPress theme
- The color – Important for staying on brand
- Grid options – How many rows and columns do you want to display
There are a ton more options for you to customize and play around with. Go through them all until you find the perfect setup for your theme.
Step 4: Add the Instagram feed widget to your sidebar or shortcode to your posts/pages
It’s now time to actually display the feed on the website. You can do this in two ways:
- Add a widget to your sidebar
- Add a shortcode to your post
You can add the widget by accessing “Appearance” and then clicking on “Widgets”. Choose the “Text” widget and paste this shortcode in to the widget text area:
[instagram-feed]
Similarly, for posts and pages, find the piece of content that you would like to add the Instagram feed to and paste the same shortcode where you would like it to appear.
Lastly, once you’ve save the widget or post/page, check on the frontend of your website that everything is displaying as expected.
We really hope that this guide helped you get Instagram setup on your WordPress website or blog. Do let us know if you ran in to any trouble along the way in the comments below, and we’ll be glad to help you out where we can.