How to Add GIFs from Giphy in WordPress (2 Methods)

Do you want to add GIFs from Giphy in WordPress?

Giphy is a popular website where you can search through many animated GIFs. Even better, you can easily add these GIFs to your WordPress website. 

In this article, we will show you how to add GIFs from Giphy in WordPress.

Pros and Cons of Using Animated GIFs in WordPress

GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format. Unlike static images, GIF images have moving content.

GIFs are perfect for adding animated reactions, memes, and pop culture references to your pages and posts. You’ll find GIFs on many big-name websites, including BuzzFeed, List25, and Reddit. 

These animated GIFs can make your WordPress posts more fun and engaging, encouraging visitors to spend more time on your WordPress site. This can help to increase pageviews and reduce your bounce rate.

However, there are some downsides.

GIF animations are large files that can slow down your WordPress website. This is bad news for the user experience and can also affect your search engine rankings and traffic.

Uploading GIF files directly to the WordPress media library can hurt your loading times and use up bandwidth.

That’s where Giphy comes in. Serving your GIFs via Giphy will save you bandwidth. It will also have less impact on your WordPress speed and performance.

Having said that, let’s take a look at two ways to add GIFs from Giphy in WordPress. Simply click the links below to jump to the method you prefer:

• Method 1. How to Add GIFs from Giphy Using an Embed Code
• Method 2. How to Add GIFs from Giphy Using EmbedPress

Method 1: How to Add GIFs From Giphy Using an Embed Code

One option is to add the GIF to a page or post using its Giphy embed code. 

Since you are using an embed code, you don’t need any special WordPress plugins. However, getting the embed code takes a few extra steps. 

If you only want to add a small number of GIFs to your website, then these extra steps might not be a problem. However, if you are planning to use lots of GIFs, it may be worth installing a plugin that will make this process easier. 

To add a GIF using its embed code, head over to the Giphy.com website. Then find the GIF that you want to use.

You can now click on the ‘Embed’ button.

Giphy will now show the embed code for this GIF.

At this point, you can choose between ‘Responsive Off’ and ‘Responsive On’.

Responsive content changes to better suit the visitor’s device. This is important for making sure your site looks just as great on smartphones and tablets as it does on desktop computers.

For example, responsive WordPress themes automatically adjust themselves to the user’s screen size. 

With that in mind, it’s a good idea to choose ‘Responsive On’.

After making your decision, copy the embed code by clicking the ‘Copy Code’ button.

Now it’s time to switch over to your WordPress dashboard. Here, simply open the page or post where you want to embed your GIF.

Your next task is creating a new Custom HTML block. To get started, click on the ‘+’ icon. 

Then, in the popup that appears, type in ‘Custom HTML’ to find the right block. Once you click on the Custom HTML block, WordPress will add this block to your page.

Now you can simply paste your GIF’s embed code into the Custom HTML block. 

It should look like this.

Before publishing this GIF, you may want to check how it will look to your visitors. To do this, simply click on the ‘Preview’ button at the top of the screen. WordPress will now show your page in a new tab.

If you are happy with your GIF, then you can publish this page. Just give the ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’ button a click.

The GIF will now appear on your WordPress blog.

Method 2: How to Add GIFs From Giphy Using EmbedPress

If you are planning to add lots of GIFs to your website, then embed codes can become too time-consuming.

Another option is to use the EmbedPress plugin. This free plugin lets you embed GIFs using just their Giphy URLs.

EmbedPress also lets you embed content from over 100 other websites. These include embedding YouTube videos, content from Imgur, plus Facebook status posts and videos. 

First, you’ll need to install and activate the EmbedPress plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, go to the page or post where you want to add your GIF. You can then click on the ‘+’ icon.

In the popup that appears, type ‘EmbedPress’ to find the right block. 

Simply give this block a click, and WordPress will add an EmbedPress block to your page.

In a new tab, head over to the Giphy website. You can then find the GIF that you want to use. 

Then, simply copy this GIF’s URL. 

Now it’s time to switch back to your WordPress dashboard. 

Here simply paste the GIF’s URL into the EmbedPress box. Finally, click on ‘Embed’.

Now if you take a look at your website, you will see your new GIF.

If you are not happy with your GIF, EmbedPress has a few settings that you may want to explore. These include changing the height and width of all the GIFs you add via EmbedPress.

To take a look at these settings, click on ‘EmbedPress’ in the WordPress sidebar.

If it isn’t already selected, click on the ‘General’ tab. You can now use these settings to customize your EmbedPress embeds. 

Just remember that any changes you make in this menu will affect all of your EmbedPress content.  

We hope this article helped you learn how to add GIFs from Giphy in WordPress. You can also go through our tutorials on how to increase your blog traffic and the best SEO plugins and tools that you should use. 

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