Sharing presentations with your siteβs visitors hasnβt always been easy. Youβve either had to upload them to a third-party website such asΒ SlideShare, or provide a download link on your site to enableΒ visitors to view them. Fortunately, WordPress enablesΒ you to embed Google Slides presentations directly withinΒ your website in a few easy steps.
In this post, weβll show you how you can add Google Slides to your WordPress website, display them, and present them to your visitors. However,Β first letβs cover why embedding slides within your WordPress website is better than using another third-party service.
Letβs get started!
Using WordPress vs. Third-Party Services to Display Presentations
We love presentations β theyβre visually appealing, easy to consume, and enableΒ you to break from the traditional blog post format. Regardless of whether youβre running an online business or working on a niche blog, sooner or later youβll realize that some information is best presented in the form of, well, a presentation!
Many website owners use third-party services such asΒ SlideShare to host their presentations, placing an external link on their website to share them with others. While these services offer definite benefits β an existing audience base, customization options, and analytics β using them couldΒ also lead to several missed opportunities.
Firstly, youβll have to connect to a third-party service every time you need to share a presentation with your readers. Because your presentation is essentially stored on a separate web server, thereβs less control, and whatβs more you lose all Search Engine Optimization (SEO) value it has to offer. In addition, managing slides uploaded to a third-party service could become difficult β especially if you have a handful of them.
Finally, redirecting your siteβs visitors to another platform to enableΒ them to view your content may not be the best idea, especially if you want to retain your hard-wonΒ traffic.
Why You Should Embed Google Slides in WordPress
If more incoming traffic isnβt reason enough to embed Google Slides in WordPress, perhaps these additional benefits will change your mind:
- It boosts conversion rates. Those of you who are using presentations to create engaging landing pages are definitely missing out on conversions. Embedding slides in WordPress will enableΒ you to retain visitors by effectively lowering your siteβs bounce rate.
- Itβs better for SEO. Presentation slides are loaded with keywords and phrases that connect to your niche. Since your slides will be added to your website, youβll be able to reap the SEO benefits they offer.
- Youβll get more page views. You can effectively bring in more page views by creating a presentation that has a single slide on each page β and more page views leads to a better ranking in Googleβs search algorithm.
GivenΒ that Google Slides offers a numberΒ of options forΒ creating presentations, letβs take a look at how to embed them directly within your WordPress website.
Getting Started With Google Slides in WordPress
Adding Google Slides to your WordPress website is a piece of cake. You couldΒ use plugins such asΒ Google Doc Embedder and Embed Any Document that enable youΒ to embed and display documents using the Google Docs Viewer. However, itβs just as easy to embed themΒ manually, and youβll retain control over your presentation.
Adding Google Slides to Your WordPress Website
To kick things off, youβll need a presentation created on Google Slides. Open it upΒ and navigate toΒ File > Publish to the web. In the Embed tab, select the following:
- Slide size. There are three options available by default β small, medium, and large. Youβre also given the option to enter custom dimensions.
- Auto-advance slides.Β This enables you to set the slideshow interval duration.
Once youβre done, click theΒ Publish button, then copy the code that appears in the text box:
Next, log into your WordPress admin panel and navigate to Pages > Add New (alternatively, you can navigate to Posts > Add New if youβd like to add your slidesΒ to a post). From here, click on the Text tab to open the WordPress editor in HTML mode, then paste the code you copied earlierΒ into the editor:
Once youβre done, click the Preview button in the Publish meta box and take a look. It should look something like this:
Once youβre happy, click either Save Draft if youβre not planning on publishing it straight away, or click the blue Publish button if youβre ready to share it with others.
Displaying YourΒ Slides on Your WordPress Website
One of the best things about embedding Google Slides within WordPress is that it enables users to give presentations directly from their website. All thatβs necessaryΒ is to click the icon in the black options bar to open up your Google Slides presentation in full screen mode:
In this mode, you can move on to the next slide by pressing the left arrow key on your keyboard. Thereβs even the option to use aΒ built-in laser pointer to helpΒ draw the viewerβs attention to a specific point.
In addition, you can also open up speaker notes by clicking on the gear icon, then selectingΒ Open speaker notes. Doing so will import yourΒ notes from Google Slides, and open them up in a new window.
Conclusion
Simply put, sharing your presentation through third-party services could lead to a poor user experience. By adding Google Slides to your WordPress website you can increase incoming traffic, boost conversion rates, and acquire more page views. Best of all, itβs great for your siteβs SEO.
Here isΒ a quick recap of the main steps involved:
- Copy the HTML code for your Google Slides presentation.
- Paste the code into your WordPress text editor and save yourΒ post.
- Use the additional options to enhance yourΒ presentations directly fromΒ your WordPress website.
Do you have any questions about adding Google Slides to your WordPress website? Get in touch viaΒ the comments section below, and subscribe to the conversation!
Article thumbnail image by illustraculaΒ / shutterstock.com.
Is there any ways of making the embed responsive to window/device? That is my only bugbear?
Christian mentioned a part-workaround above, but it still needs some work. Posting the question in our forums (https://www.elegantthemes.com/forum/) may help you find an answer.
Good luck. π
very good idea… How to make it responsive… I use
width=”100%” height=”auto”
but there is a problem with height !
Thanks for the tip β maybe some of our other readers over at our forum (https://www.elegantthemes.com/forum/) could help fill in the gaps?
I think this might be a great help seeing I tend to go to issuu for my presentations/PDF brochures, especially with the SEO benefits!
GSuite is a great toolset it has to be said.
Yes, people can sometimes get a little antsy with Google’s services β but on the whole they’re providing an awful lot for zero outlay. Glad you’re considering the switch. π
Two months ago I started to take GSuite seriously because I brought a Chromebook and found surprisingly that I can complete almost all the work I do with computer classic software.
Thanks for this useful info.
No problem, Jonatan. Glad the Chromebook is working out for you. π
I’ve tried this in a Elegant Theme and in a Genesis theme and the slides go wonky when the screenwidth narrows. It works responsively really well displayed from Google but embedded by iframe into a high performing WordPress site that is responsive, not so well. If anyone knows something better about using these please share.
Its because of the width and height values in the iframe code that causes this issue. I think it would be best to remove that and add a css class name so you can use that to control the size of the iframe and fit it within your layout.
Good suggestion Matthew. I did try 100% on the width in the iframe tag but that didn’t help with the wonkyness, but maybe adding a class and doing it by CSS would be better.
this is really a wonderful post! Lots of my clients can use this, thank you!
I seems it also works for a.o. Google documents. Do you think you can also use it on a closed part of the website?
I’m afraid I don’t know, Jantien. There’s only one way to find out. π
Thank you for this tip I am going to use it today.
Great stuff, Eileen!
Thanks for the info. Always love coming to the blog π
Thanks Cat. π
Good stuff! I like how more and more focus is shifting to UX and SEO – the two most important metrics for any website. Anyone know if there is any link juice flowing from a link in Google Slides? I mean, from Google.com.
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That’s a good question, and one I don’t have the answer to I’m afraid. I’d be interested to see any research!
I don’t get how this is any different to embedding a slideshare presentation? Isn’t it exactly the same?
What’s more, Slide share even have a plugin for wordpress, so you can just use a shortcode without having to switch to code view. Meaning it’s super easy to embed within a Divi module.
What Christyn said. π
Furthermore, this method doesn’t require a plugin!
difference is this is google.. tied to gmail and more,, easier to talk to its other integration options.. also more secure in mind than other services.