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WPBeginner» Blog» Beginners Guide» What is Gravatar and Why You Should Start Using it Right Away

What is Gravatar and Why You Should Start Using it Right Away

Last updated on March 12th, 2013 by Editorial Staff
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What is Gravatar and Why You Should Start Using it Right Away

Often new WordPress users ask us about how the grey icon that shows up next to their name. Sometimes we get emails from users asking us how can they turn this grey thing off. Well this grey icon is known as “mystery man” gravatar. In this article we will discuss what is a gravatar and why you should start using it right away.

History: Avatar

Before we dive into what is a Gravatar, we should first cover what is an avatar. An avatar is a graphical representation of a user. It could be the person’s picture, or a random icon they want to associate with. Back in the days when web was sort of anonymous, people would use icons for identification purposes. Largely it is still the case in the gamer community. One of the coolest part about discussion boards, forums, is that you can recognize active users fairly easily because of their avatar. While it is hard to remember names, it is very easy to identify a specific image. If you were part of numerous discussion boards, you would start to recognize a same group of people everywhere. As the web evolved and blogging started to become more mainstream, it was fairly hard to have an identity as a commenter. With forums and other services, users were required to register. Each user had their own profile, so they could easily add an “avatar” to their profile. However, blog commenting doesn’t require registration in most cases. So how do we identify users? Well that is when Gravatar comes in.

What is a Gravatar?

Gravatar stands for Globally Recognized Avatar. It is globally recognized because millions of people and websites use them. Most popular applications like WordPress have built-in support for Gravatar. When a user leaves a comment (with email) on a site that supports Gravatar, it pulls their Globally Recognized Avatar from Gravatar servers. Then that picture is shown next to the comment. This allows each commenter to have their identity through out the world wide web.

Gravatar

Why Should I add Gravatar?

If you want to be identified on the web, then you should use a gravatar. If you are a blogger, non-profit, small business, or anyone who wants to build a brand, then you need to start using gravatar. Chances are that you read and comment on blogs. At first your gravatar might not get as much attention. But if the same person sees your comment at numerous sites they read, they will probably end up visiting your website. We as publishers find it really easy to identify our loyal users by their gravatar.

In our opinion, gravatar makes your comment stand out.

How can I get a Gravatar?

It’s simple and it’s free. Simply go to Gravatar’s website. Signup with the email that you use the most often to comment. Add an avatar of yourself. This could be a picture of yourself, your company’s logo, or something unique. You really have to do it one time. Chances are you won’t be changing your avatar a lot. So it’s more like set it and forget it.

Most WordPress themes already come with gravatar integration with comments. If your theme doesn’t, then you should seriously consider adding it. For further branding purposes, you can change the default mystery man gravatar on your site and put something else. Here is a tutorial on how to change the default gravatar in WordPress.

To see the live demo of gravatar in action simply comment below. Hope to see new faces in our comments. If you have a gravatar, then make a comment below. So we can recognize you.

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About the Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi. Trusted by over 1.3 million readers worldwide.

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401 Comments

Leave a Reply
  1. Fynn Perry says:
    Jan 10, 2021 at 8:19 am

    Thank you. Useful

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jan 11, 2021 at 10:29 am

      You’re welcome :)

      Reply
  2. Ayoola says:
    Dec 10, 2020 at 7:56 pm

    Very helpful tutorial.
    This is a test to check it works and to say thank you.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Dec 11, 2020 at 9:36 am

      Glad our guide was helpful and it looks like you have it set up :)

      Reply
  3. Bruno Freitas says:
    Dec 9, 2020 at 6:47 pm

    Thanks for the great tutorial. Checking if it is working…

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Dec 10, 2020 at 9:31 am

      Looks like you set your Gravatar :)

      Reply
  4. Ron Frey says:
    Dec 6, 2020 at 11:42 pm

    Thanks for the interesting post – One Question, if I have multiple websites should I have Multiple Gravitars and manage them accordingly?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Dec 7, 2020 at 11:58 am

      Normally no, the gravatar would be for you, not the sites you run.

      Reply
  5. Taeikul islam says:
    Nov 19, 2020 at 8:14 am

    I wanted to know about gravatar for a long. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Nov 19, 2020 at 10:03 am

      Glad our guide was helpful!

      Reply
  6. Atul Sinha says:
    Nov 7, 2020 at 5:08 am

    I am a regular reader of your site. it’s very impressive. Now I am Testing my gravatar.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Nov 9, 2020 at 11:42 am

      It appears to be set :)

      Reply
  7. Bachir Djebbar says:
    Sep 24, 2020 at 2:01 pm

    Thanks a lot for this tutorial.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Sep 25, 2020 at 9:36 am

      You’re welcome :)

      Reply
  8. Sara Wright says:
    Sep 14, 2020 at 9:54 am

    As you suggested – checking out if my gravatar works. I am enjoying your site and helpful courses :)

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Sep 15, 2020 at 1:19 pm

      Glad our site is helpful, you may want to ensure you’re using the same email as your Gravatar account :)

      Reply
  9. Mike30 says:
    Sep 3, 2020 at 2:24 pm

    I really like gravatar.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Sep 8, 2020 at 3:36 pm

      Glad you like it :)

      Reply
  10. Marcelino Rensburg says:
    Aug 7, 2020 at 6:52 pm

    `Very concise and informative artical! Thanks!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Aug 10, 2020 at 1:27 pm

      You’re welcome :)

      Reply
  11. Ugbe Shulamite Anyin says:
    Jul 18, 2020 at 8:15 pm

    Awesome! I love Gravatar!

    Reply
  12. Ron says:
    Jul 16, 2020 at 11:56 am

    Great Article, very helpful, now let’s see if mine loads

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jul 17, 2020 at 10:00 am

      Glad our article was helpful, don’t forget to use the same email that you used to create your gravatar account.

      Reply
  13. Andrei says:
    Jul 6, 2020 at 2:01 pm

    Thank you for this article.
    It was really helpful.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jul 7, 2020 at 1:42 pm

      You’re welcome :)

      Reply
  14. nancy says:
    Jun 24, 2020 at 6:56 am

    Commenting to check if its working

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jun 24, 2020 at 9:13 am

      Looks like it is working :)

      Reply
  15. james shaw says:
    May 30, 2020 at 11:22 am

    just testing my gravatar setting out. i hope this is working

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jun 1, 2020 at 8:52 am

      It appears to be working :)

      Reply
  16. Julia says:
    May 15, 2020 at 2:05 am

    Thank you for the article, also testing if it worked. :)

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 15, 2020 at 9:00 am

      Looks like you set it up :)

      Reply
  17. PVT says:
    May 10, 2020 at 6:38 pm

    Testing 123, Gravat is cool and will help a lot

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 12, 2020 at 9:01 am

      Looks like you may have not set your Gravitar for that email address :)

      Reply
  18. Paul McCafferty says:
    May 8, 2020 at 4:26 pm

    Testing to see if this works!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 11, 2020 at 3:40 pm

      It looks like you set it up correctly :)

      Reply
  19. Muhammad says:
    May 6, 2020 at 10:42 pm

    Testing Gravatar, this is cool

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 8, 2020 at 9:51 am

      It appears to be set :)

      Reply
  20. Karthick says:
    May 3, 2020 at 1:30 pm

    This is quite interesting!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 5, 2020 at 10:25 am

      Glad you liked our article :)

      Reply
  21. Hedgehog says:
    May 2, 2020 at 3:08 pm

    checking my gravatar works or not

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 4, 2020 at 1:38 pm

      It appears to be working :)

      Reply
  22. Lemuel says:
    May 2, 2020 at 11:18 am

    Thanks for this post. This was very helpful. I am just learning about this.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 4, 2020 at 2:52 pm

      You’re welcome, glad our guide was helpful :)

      Reply
  23. Iain says:
    Apr 27, 2020 at 11:38 am

    Thanks for this and enjoy my gravatar!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Apr 28, 2020 at 1:16 pm

      You’re welcome, glad we could be helpful in setting it up :)

      Reply
  24. A Mueed says:
    Apr 25, 2020 at 8:28 am

    Checking my gravatar. Thanks by the way

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Apr 28, 2020 at 11:21 am

      It appears to be working, you’re welcome :)

      Reply
  25. Greg says:
    Jan 20, 2020 at 3:45 am

    Tried to sign up with gravatar but it keeps forcing me to build a website. All I want to to is upload a photo..

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jan 21, 2020 at 1:30 pm

      Gravatar currently requires you to have a WordPress.com account, you should be able to skip creating a site and go back to Gravatar’s site if you created an account on WordPress.com.

      Reply
  26. jack dowie says:
    Jan 15, 2020 at 8:07 am

    Checking gravatar for gravitas! thanks

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jan 15, 2020 at 10:41 am

      You’re welcome, your Gravitar appears to be set :)

      Reply
  27. Amanda says:
    Dec 29, 2019 at 12:06 pm

    Nice read, great concept.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Dec 30, 2019 at 11:39 am

      Thank you, glad you like our content :)

      Reply
  28. Delseta says:
    Dec 28, 2019 at 9:17 pm

    Checking to see if my gravatar works. Good info!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Dec 30, 2019 at 11:32 am

      Looks like your Gravatar is working correctly :)

      Reply
  29. Henry Ayoroh says:
    Dec 15, 2019 at 1:28 pm

    Thanks. Allow me check to see if my avatar is set…

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Dec 16, 2019 at 11:06 am

      It appears your Gravatar is set :)

      Reply
  30. tor says:
    Dec 8, 2019 at 2:19 pm

    Just checking my Gravatar

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Dec 9, 2019 at 11:52 am

      It appears to be set :)

      Reply
  31. Zohaib Mjeed says:
    Nov 14, 2019 at 2:42 am

    Wow Very useful content. Keep it up

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Nov 14, 2019 at 10:15 am

      Thank you for your kind words :)

      Reply
  32. Hasieishere says:
    Oct 24, 2019 at 8:53 am

    Thanks for the info!!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Oct 24, 2019 at 10:24 am

      You’re welcome :)

      Reply
  33. David Lee says:
    Oct 8, 2019 at 5:29 pm

    Does mine work?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Oct 9, 2019 at 9:34 am

      It appears to be set up :)

      Reply
  34. Ciara Janay says:
    Aug 27, 2019 at 4:47 pm

    test testing my gravatar I dont think its working

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Aug 28, 2019 at 9:20 am

      From taking a look it appears that your gravatar is set

      Reply
  35. Huraira says:
    Aug 18, 2019 at 4:08 pm

    Found it to be a cool concept, especially from the point of view of building a brand. Really useful for such lot!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Aug 19, 2019 at 11:41 am

      Thanks for sharing your opinion of Gravatar :)

      Reply
  36. Sigourney Humus says:
    Aug 10, 2019 at 12:56 am

    This is great thanks!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Aug 12, 2019 at 10:12 am

      You’re welcome :)

      Reply
  37. Apoorva says:
    Jul 24, 2019 at 2:22 pm

    Checking gravatar

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jul 25, 2019 at 10:47 am

      It appears to be set :)

      Reply
  38. danish arafat says:
    Jul 19, 2019 at 12:29 am

    very nice this is really useful

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jul 22, 2019 at 11:36 am

      Thank you, glad you found our content useful :)

      Reply
  39. RAHASIA says:
    Jul 2, 2019 at 12:09 am

    aloha ! Does it work ?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jul 2, 2019 at 11:34 am

      Looks like you set it up correctly :)

      Reply
  40. Bill Helmken says:
    Jun 23, 2019 at 11:00 am

    Thanks for the information

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jun 25, 2019 at 11:11 am

      You’re welcome :)

      Reply
  41. Gail Fernandes says:
    May 21, 2019 at 6:58 pm

    Thanks for sharing. Just checking to see if my Gravatar works.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 22, 2019 at 11:21 am

      Looks like you set it up correctly :)

      Reply
  42. Jennye Guy says:
    May 20, 2019 at 12:17 pm

    Thanks for this tutorial. This is also a test as this is my very first comment!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 20, 2019 at 1:28 pm

      You’re welcome, looks like you set up your Gravatar correctly :)

      Reply
  43. Campinghood says:
    May 19, 2019 at 11:47 am

    Testing my Gravatar

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 20, 2019 at 11:14 am

      Looks like it is set up correctly :)

      Reply
  44. ricky lovenuts says:
    May 14, 2019 at 12:39 pm

    hi just a test gravatar!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 15, 2019 at 10:29 am

      Looks like you set it up :)

      Reply
  45. John says:
    May 9, 2019 at 4:14 am

    Test avatar

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 9, 2019 at 11:01 am

      Looks like you set it up correctly :)

      Reply
  46. dd says:
    Apr 18, 2019 at 4:42 am

    Gravatar test

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Apr 18, 2019 at 11:10 am

      Looks like you set it up correctly :)

      Reply
  47. Michelle Thomas says:
    Apr 16, 2019 at 10:45 am

    Gravatar Test

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Apr 16, 2019 at 11:16 am

      Looks like you set it up correctly :)

      Reply
  48. tawnyfeatherstone says:
    Apr 16, 2019 at 10:43 am

    Gravatar test

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Apr 16, 2019 at 10:45 am

      Looks like you set it up correctly :)

      Reply
  49. razvan says:
    Apr 10, 2019 at 4:00 am

    Gravatar test

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Apr 10, 2019 at 10:59 am

      Looks like you set it up correctly :)

      Reply
  50. Sophia Sanchez says:
    Apr 10, 2019 at 12:34 am

    Interesting article!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Apr 10, 2019 at 11:45 am

      Thank you :)

      Reply
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