Did you know that you can embed almost anything into your website? From the standard Google Map to the more complicated pricing table, you can quickly change your website from merely something to read to a fun, interactive way of engaging with your readers.
And with the likes of Gutenberg and a snazzy new tool, it’s easier than you think.
Automatic Embeds in WordPress
Before we look at a bunch of cool embed plugins, note that WordPress supports automatic embeds from various popular platforms. This is all thanks to the amazing oEmbed protocol.
For instance, if you want to embed a YouTube video with link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqImIny3JR0, all you have to do is paste its link in your page/post editor. WordPress will automatically embed it as shown below.
No more messing around with copy-pasting HTML code.
For security reasons, this only works with a bunch of popular whitelisted websites. Go here for a complete list of services supported.
Easy Embeds with Gutenberg
WordPress’ new Gutenberg editor has transformed the embed game significantly. It comes with many common embed blocks out of the box, including images, galleries, audio, tables, forms, calendar, etc.
You can even embed a snippet of any WordPress.org plugin or a Kickstarter project by just pasting their links, either directly or in the ubiquitous Embed block.
What would earlier require dozens of plugins or custom code can, you can do it directly now. It’s an easy decision to use these if you’re only looking for basic embeds.
But if you’re looking for something fancier and prettier (aka more fun), read on for our list of # fun and cool things to embed in your website.
#1 Embed Tables
Turn the tables on your data and present it with style to your users. Tables help your readers visualize comparisons between two or more types of items.
There are many types of tables you can make use of, from a simple HTML table to a complex pricing table.
Use the free TablePress plugin to embed and display rows of data with interactive tables. It adds cool interactive features to your regular HTML tables, like filtering results by search, pagination, multi-column ordering, etc.
Visualizer, Ninja Tables, and WordPress Table Plugin are other good alternatives to embed tables and charts.
If you’re looking to embed pricing tables though, you cannot go wrong with the Pricing Tables plugin by Supsystic. It’s a drag-and-drop table builder that makes it easy to build custom, responsive pricing tables in minutes.
#2 Embed Graphs and Charts
Chart a better course for showing your data with graphs and charts. They’re a visual representation of data that attract your users’ attention. Plus, they have a higher chance of remaining in their memory.
I recommend the underappreciated Easy Charts plugin. It is a simple yet powerful embed plugin to generate interactive charts. All the charts it generates are SVGs with CSS3 transitions, which means they’re fully interactive with little bloat.
Another cool plugin is Data Tables Generator by Supsystic. The free version provides a lot of cool graph embed options to choose from. And yes, they’re all interactive too!
You can also use the Visualizer plugin to generate graphs and charts from your tables. However, it’s sometimes buggy when handling complex data.
#3 Embed Games
Level up your website’s fun factor by adding games to it. Embedding games on your site gives your users something fun and challenging to do.
Likewise, casual word games are a great fit for many sites. Some plugins that you can consider are Word Search Puzzles Game, WHA Puzzle, and WHA Crossword.
To win the game, you better understand how to play the gaaaaame.
#4 Embed Code Snippets
There are 10 types of people. Those who want to embed code in their pages and those who don’t.
Sometimes, all you need is a little
The Code Snippet DM plugin helps you embed your code snippets in a beautiful, stylish way. Inspired by the Carbon project, it supports automatic syntax highlighting and lets you set custom backgrounds and wraps for your code embeds. Here are few demos worth checking out.
If you’re looking for a more robust, tried-and-tested option, SyntaxHighlighter Evolved is the one you’re looking for. Supported by WordPress founders at Automattic, it’s been available for over 10 years and is still going strong.
Another option is to publish your code to an external code repository such as Pastebin, and then embed it in your site.
This is the whole gist of your code!I’ve embedded the same below using an embed code by GitHub Gist.
This way you’re not taxing your WordPress site with unnecessary overhead.
#5 Embed Documents
Don’t make it hard for your site’s visitors to get the information they need. Embed documents directly on your website and make your users happy.
One of the top ‘things’ to embed in your website, Embed Any Document plugin can easily handle any of your documents and PDFs. Since it uses Google Docs Viewer or Microsoft Office Online to display the documents, you or your users don’t have to install any additional browser add-ons to view them.
It supports embedding a wide variety of document and image formats: MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, PDF, Text (.txt), TIFF Images (tif, tiff), Adobe Illustrator (.ai), and even SVGs.
If you’re specifically looking to embed Google Spreadsheets (and CSV / MySQL files), I recommend you check out Inline Google Spreadsheet Viewer. Apart from letting you embed the sheets, it also helps you create interactive graphs and charts with the data.
Likewise, PDF Embedder is a great option if you’re focused on embedding PDFs in your site.
#6 Embed an Instagram Feed on Your Website
… or Facebook, or Twitter, or Reddit, or…
Leverage the power of social media and engage your visitors to keep them hooked.
One way to do it is to embed social media posts directly in your website. If you can do it stylishly, even better!
Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed lets you embed Instagram posts in your WordPress site, either as a single feed or by combining multiple different ones.
If you’re looking to embed Twitter feeds or Facebook, there’s nothing better than Custom Twitter Feeds and Custom Facebook Feed plugins from the same Smash Balloon team.
But if you’re looking for a single social media plugin solution that helps you embed posts from all the platforms listed above (plus Pinterest and YouTube feeds), Feed Them Social is a great option.
#7 Embed Audio Including Music, Playlists and Podcasts
Life would be flat without music, and so would be your WordPress site!
Get your audio game on point by using the right audio embed plugin.
With audio embeds, there are three options that you can take advantage of.
The first two are embedding individual tracks and/or playlists. I tried multiple plugins and settled on AudioIgniter, an awesome free plugin from the good folks at CSSIgniter. It’s primarily a music player that also lets you create playlists and embed them in your site.
AudioIgniter works by using the default WordPress media upload functionality. Plus, you can also use it to stream your radio show.
If you’re planning to monetize music directly from your website, you can combine AudioIgniter with WooCommerce to sell your individual tracks or albums.
The third option is to embed podcasts that are created or curated by you.
If you want to publish your own podcasts and embed them in your site, PowerPress Podcasting and Seriously Simple Podcasting are two great free podcasting plugins.
#8 Embed Maps
Give your website a moral compass and have it perform off the charts. How? By embedding maps in it.
The most popular WordPress plugin to embed maps is WP Google Maps. It lets you embed a Google map with as many markers as you like. If needed, you can also use it to overlay a Store Locator and different route layers (transit, traffic, bicycle, etc.).
Another great alternative is Maps Widget for Google Maps. It’s by the same team behind the WP Reset plugin.
However, with the recent updates in pricing policy for Google Maps, integrating it with high traffic websites is kinda expensive. In that case, going for an alternative map solution is much better. The Ultimate Maps by Supsystic plugin helps you do just that.
It lets you add unlimited markers to your embedded maps, with links, description, images, videos, etc. Ultimate Maps works with Bing maps, OpenStreetMap (OSM), Leaflet maps, Mapbox, and Thunderforest.
#9 Embed Event Calendars
Calendars are the best. They can go on for days, weeks, months, and sometimes even years.
Gutenberg comes with a basic Calendar block, but I find it lacking. My go-to events and calendar plugin is the aptly named The Events Calendar. It’s easy to use, fully customizable, and expandable with a lot of free add-ons.
If you want to embed a calendar-based booking and reservation system, it’s worth checking out the Booking Calendar plugin.
Looking to embed an external calendar? Check out ICS Calendar. It lets you embed any iCalendar subscription feed (.ics) as a calendar grid.
#10 Embed Downloadable Files
Don’t give your users any attachment issues. Make it easy for them to download files by embedding them directly in your site. They’ll thank you for it.
If you’re looking to embed just a file or two, the default Gutenberg File block is decent enough. However, it can only link to files in your media library.
If you’re looking to embed downloadable files in a better way, go with Better File Download. It lets you display your downloads as a link or a styled block. You can also make simple styling adjustments to customize how the embed looks. Plus, you can attach a feature image to your embed blocks.
For a more advanced option, you can give Download Monitor a try. It lets you upload multiple versions of the same file and manage them. Users can choose which file version they wanna download. And it also logs all the downloads.
If you want to capture the user’s details (such as their name and email) before they can download the file, you can link Download Monitor with the Email Before Download plugin.
#11 Embed Many Files
To embed many files as a stylized, sortable list, go with File Away plugin. It can display files from not just your media library, but from all your server directories.
#12 Embed Sliders
Slide into your visitors’ hearts with the perfect sliders embedded in your site’s posts and pages.
There are many good slider plugins available for WordPress, and I’ve tried them all. The best of the lot is Smart Slider 3. All the sliders it creates are fully responsive, optimized for SEO, and work with any WordPress theme.
If you’re looking for a slider to insert any type of content (text, HTML, images, videos, shortcodes), then you should definitely check out Slide Anything. It allows you to create touch-enabled, responsive carousels.
#13 Embed Quizzes and Forms
Forms are the lowest wit of puns, or so the saying goes. Hence, it makes perfect sense to embed them in your site.
The era of boring forms is slowly ending. That’s why we made Forminator, an intuitive form builder that helps you create interactive forms, polls, quizzes, and more. And the best part is that it’s free!
Whether it’s a simple contact form or a complex order form with payments, Forminator can handle them all with ease.
The next evolution of forms is interactive quizzes. They’re all the rage these days. Interactive forms help you engage with your audience better, collect qualified leads, and drive more sales. Forminator empowers you to create a quiz in minutes.
Have you taken our Date with Devman quiz yet? It’s made 100% with Forminator.
#14 Embed YouTube Videos… or Any Videos
Embedding videos in WordPress is easy, especially if it’s from one of the popular video-sharing platforms.
In my experience, the default video player in WordPress isn’t that great. I prefer a minimal and light interface, like the one by HTML5 Video Player plugin.
A great alternative is the Advanced Responsive Video Embedder plugin. They claim to be the only video embed plugin you’ll need for WordPress.
While you can embed YouTube videos by copy-pasting its URL, what if you want to embed many videos at once? Say as a gallery of videos
The Video Gallery plugin by YotuWP is the answer. It lets you pull in a bunch of videos from YouTube playlists, channels, users, or ids. And then you can display these videos as a list, a grid, or a mix of both.
Vimeography is a similar plugin for displaying galleries of Vimeo videos. If you’re not familiar with Vimeo, it’s a video-sharing platform that’s popular with creatives.
Want your embedded videos to open in a popup window? The Video Popup plugin will fit your needs perfectly.
And finally, Related YouTube Videos plugin can add relevant videos from YouTube to your posts. It connects with YouTube’s API to embed the right videos in your posts.
#15 Embed Interactive Images
User engagement is one of the biggest factors in determining a site’s success. Interactive images make it easy for your visitors to get what they want quickly and easily. You can boost your user engagement by embedding interactive images.
Use the Image Hotspot plugin by DevVN to embed interactive images with hotspots. With it, you can add clickable hotspots in images with custom icons and backgrounds. Clicking the hotspot will open a tooltip with its description.
If you have very large images (think tens or hundreds of megapixels), then you need to give your visitors the ability to pan and zoom into the images. The Zoomify Image Format (ZIF) specifically serves zoomable images.
The Zoomify embed for WP plugin helps you embed ZIF format images. It’s the perfect solution to enable interactive panning and zooming of super large images.
Embed EVERYTHING in WordPress
Embeds allow you to share and reuse content from other sites easily. WordPress and its plugins make it simple to do this.
There’s a lot more interesting stuff to insert into your WordPress site. You can embed user reviews, quotes, alerts & notices, 360 degree images, even posts from your own site.
And if you’re looking for something more, EmbedPress, embed.ly, and H5P will take care of embedding almost anything.
There’s never been a better time to get embed with WordPress. Get started today!
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