How to Setup Facebook Instant Articles for WordPress
Have you heard about Facebook Instant Articles? Want to add Facebook Instant Articles on your WordPress site? In this step by step guide, I will explain what is Facebook Instant Articles as well as show you how to easily setup Facebook Instant Articles for WordPress.
While you are developing amazing content that has the possibility of being viral, you need to give more room to the distribution task.
And sharing on Facebook is a great strategy as more than 1.45 billion users actively use Facebook every single day.
If you own a site or blog, you can easily start creating Facebook Instant Articles for WordPress by using the Instant Articles plugin for WordPress.
What is Facebook Instant Article?
Instant Articles is a Facebook feature which allows you to load your content 10 times faster by using a customized mobile format.
Instant Articles load up to 10 times faster than a normal web page. This incredible boost in speed provides a better user experience for mobile users.
How to Setup Facebook Instant Article for WordPress
Before I dive into how to set up Facebook instant article for WordPress, there are a few things you need.
- A website powered by WordPress
- A Facebook Page
- Your publication’s logo
- 5 published articles
- Instant Articles for WP plugin
- Pages Manager app (You’ll use this to preview Instant Articles before sharing them.)
Signing up for Facebook Instant Article for WordPress website
First, you need to visit Facebook Instant Articles website and click on the signup button to get started.
Facebook will now ask you to select a page. Here you need to select the Facebook Page for your website.
After that check the box to agree with Instant Articles terms and then click on ‘Access Instant Articles Tools’ button.
This will take you to the publisher tools on your Facebook page, which will now have an instant articles section.
You need to first prove the ownership of your website by connecting your URL.
Scroll down a little to the Tools section on the page and click on the ‘Connect your URL’ to expand it. Facebook will show you a code snippet. Under “Instant Articles → Configuration → Tools → Connect Your Site” you will find your Page ID. Copy this to your clipboard.
Once you have copy the code, insert it into the <head>section of your WordPress site.
There are two ways you can add this code to your website.
- You can edit the header.php file in your theme and paste the code just before
<head>tag. - You can use
Insert Headers and Footersplugin.
After activating the plugin, go to Settings » Insert Headers and Footers page and paste the code into the header section.
Click on save button to store your changes.
After adding your page ID to the plugin settings, go back to the publisher tools on your Facebook page.
Add your website URL below the code you copied earlier and then click on Submit URL button
If you receive the following error: The provided URL is not being accepted because the site has minimal readership, which violates the Instant Article Policies (https://developers.facebook.com/docs/instant-articles/policy/). Please provide a different URL.
- Ensure you have a decent amount of content already on your WordPress site. Don’t try applying with a blank website.
- Content can’t be behind a paywall.
- Have a link to your site’s privacy policy visible.
The next step is to add an Instant Articles RSS feed for your website. Here is how you can generate an Instant Article feed for your WordPress site.
Simply install and activate the Instant Articles for WP plugin. Upon activation, the plugin will generate an instant articles feed for your WordPress site.
You can find the feed by adding /feed/instant-articles after your site’s URL, like this:
https://www.simbablogging.com.ng/feed/instant-articles
Copy your instant articles feed URL and switch back to your Facebook page’s publishing tool section. Scroll down to the Tools section and click on ‘Production RSS Feed’.
Paste your Instant Articles feed URL and click on the Save button. Facebook will show you a success message that your feed is added.
It can take up to an hour for Facebook to ingest posts via the RSS Feed method
Setting up Facebook Instant Articles plugin for WordPress
You will notice that upon activation the plugin added a new menu item in your WordPress admin bar labeled ‘Instant Articles’. Clicking on it will take you to the plugin’s Settings page.
This plugin requires an App ID and Secret keys for activation.
You will need to create a Facebook app for your page to get those keys.
Creating a Facebook App for Your Page
First, you need to visit the Facebook for Developers website. Click on the drop down menu next to My Apps menu on the upper right corner of the screen next to your profile photo.
This will bring up a popup on screen. You need to click on create App.
This will take you to a quick setup wizard. You need to enter a name for your Facebook app. This could be anything that helps you identify the app.
Click on the ‘Create App ID’ button to continue.
A new popup will appear asking you to provide a contact email address and select a category for your app.
Enter an email address and select Apps for Pages as app category.
Click on Create App ID button to continue.
Enter your WordPress website address and click on the next button to continue.
You will be redirected to your newly created app’s dashboard. You will be able to see your App ID and to see your App secret key you will need to click on ‘Show’ button.
Before you copy these keys, first you need to make your app live and publicly available.
Click on the ‘App Review’ link from the menu on your left.
On the next screen, you will see that your app is under development mode. Click on the toggle to switch it to ‘Yes’ and make your app live.
Now click on the dashboard link from the left hand column to go back to your app’s dashboard. Copy your App ID and Secret keys.
Return to your Instant Articles for WP plugin’ settings page on your WordPress site and paste your App ID and Secret keys there.
Click on the next button to continue.
The plugin’s settings page will now show you a login with Facebook button.
This will take you to Facebook, and you will be asked to give the app permission to access your profile information.
After giving permission, you will be redirected back to your WordPress site. Click on the ‘Select Page’ drop down menu to select your Facebook page.
Your WordPress site is now ready for Instant Articles. There are still two more steps left.
Setup Style and Branding for Your Instant Articles
You should then style your Facebook posts to match the branding of your site. I recommend at least adding your logo. Go got the Facebook Publishing Tools and under “Instant Articles → Configuration → Tools → Styles” you can create and edit the default style.
To edit the default style, click on default, it will edit.
This will open up a popup where you can upload your website logo. Facebook requires images that are 690 by 132 pixels minimum.
After uploading the logo, click on Save and then click on Done.
Submit Your Instant Articles Feed for Review
Before you can submit your Instant Articles feed for review, you need to make sure that you have at least 10 articles in your Instant Articles feed.
If you have already published more than 10 articles on your website, but the feed is not showing all of them, then you need to edit your last 10 articles and simply click on the update button.
Once you are sure that you have 10 articles in your Instant Articles feed, you are now ready to submit it to Facebook for review.
Go to your Facebook page and click on Publishing Tools from the admin bar. After that click on the ‘Configuration’ link under Instant Articles on your left hand menu.
Look for ‘Step 2: Submit For Review’ on the configuration settings page.
If there are no errors with your Instant Articles feed, then you will see a ‘Submit for Review’ button. Go ahead and click on this button to send your feed for review.
That’s all, Instant Articles will become available for your website once Facebook team has reviewed and approved your feed.
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