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How to Create a WordPress Image Carousel (2 Easy Ways)

How to Create a WordPress Image Carousel (3 Easy Ways) 

Written By: author avatar Stacey Corrin
author avatar Stacey Corrin
Stacey has been writing about WordPress and digital marketing for over 10 years and on other topics for much longer. Alongside this, she's fascinated with web design, user experience, and SEO.
     Reviewed By: reviewer avatar John Turner
reviewer avatar John Turner
John Turner is the founder of SeedProd. He's an Entrepreneur, Web Developer, Marketer, SysAdmin, DBA, Support Tech and can even Cook.

Do you want to embed a WordPress image carousel on your website?

In my 10+ years of working with WordPress, I’ve found that image carousels are a visually striking way to enhance engagement on any website. But it’s often hard to find a WordPress carousel plugin that’s both powerful and easy to use if you’re a beginner.

In this article, I’ll show you how to create an image carousel on your WordPress website easily.

3 Ways to Create a WordPress Image Carousel:

How to Create Image Carousels for Custom WordPress Pages

SeedProd Drag and Drop WordPress website builder

SeedProd is the best WordPress website builder, with over 1 million users. While its carousel block isn’t free, it offers incredible value for its cost. With its drag-and-drop page builder, you can add multiple image carousels and sliders to any page of your site without coding.

You can also use SeedProd to:

  • Create a custom WordPress theme
  • Grow your email list with opt-in forms
  • Show your physical location with Google Maps
  • Create urgency using countdown timers
  • Boost engagement with social media embeds
  • Draw attention with animated headlines
  • Engage visitors with video embeds
  • Build trust and credibility with testimonials

With this in mind, let’s look at how to add an image carousel to your website using SeedProd.

Step 1: Install and Activate the SeedProd Plugin

The first step is to download a copy of the SeedProd plugin. While SeedProd has a free version for creating simple landing pages, we’ll use the Pro version to access all of the advanced features.

Next, upload, install, and activate the plugin on your WordPress website. If you need help with this, follow these instructions for installing a WordPress plugin.

After activating the plugin, head to SeedProd » Settings, where you can enter your SeedProd license key. You can find your license key in your SeedProd account area in the Downloads section.

Verify your seedprod license key

Step 2: Create a WordPress Landing Page

The next step is to navigate to SeedProd » Pages to create a new landing page.

SeedProd landing page modes

At the top of this page are 4 different page modes you can activate with a single click, including:

  • Coming soonEnable a coming soon page to tell visitors (and Google) about your new website.
  • Maintenance mode – Let visitors know you’re temporarily down for maintenance.
  • Login – Activate and create a custom WordPress login page.
  • 404 – Enable a custom 404 error page on your WordPress site.

Under the page mode section, you’ll see any landing page you create with the SeedProd plugin. You can make as many custom WordPress pages as you like.

create a new landing page

Click the Create New Landing Page button to make a new page. Doing so shows SeedProd’s library of responsive landing page templates.

SeedProd landing page templates

You can choose any landing page design you like, but we suggest picking a template that is close to how you want your page to look. That way, you won’t need to make too many changes.

For this post, I used the Travel Webinar Page template, which you can find by clicking the Webinar tab at the top of the screen.

To choose this template, hover your mouse over the thumbnail and click the orange tick icon.

Import your landing page template

Next, you’ll see a popup where you can add a page name. The page name won’t appear on your landing page design, but it does set your page’s URL. So, choose a name that makes sense to your visitors when they visit your page.

Click save and start editing your landing page

Now click the Save and Start Editing the Page button.

Step 3: Customize Your Landing Page Content

After launching your template, you’ll see SeedProd’s page builder screen. With the drag-and-drop interface, you can edit every part of your template.

SeedProd's drag-and-drop page builder

The left-hand sidebar has a wide selection of blocks that you can drag and drop onto your page. Once a block is on your page, you can click it to show the content, templates, and advanced customization settings.

For example, if you want to add your logo to your landing page, just drag the Image block from the left-hand panel and drop it onto your page.

Add a new landing page image

From there, you can upload a new image or choose a logo from your WordPress media library. You can also adjust the size and alignment and add a link.

If you want to customize your page’s colors, fonts, and backgrounds, it’s just as easy. From the bottom-left area of your page builder, click the gear icon to show the Global Settings panel and customization options.

SeedProd global settings panel

You can click the Fonts, Colors, or Background tabs to customize your landing page. For example, if you click the Background tab, you can upload a custom background image or change the gradient or color overlay.

Customize your landing page background

You also have the option to use a video background or a background slideshow.

But the reason why you’re here is to add a carousel to your page easily. To do this, you can use SeedProd’s Image Carousel block.

For this example, you’ll replace the main hero image with a sliding carousel. So first, hover over the existing image and click the trashcan icon to remove it.

Delete the default template block

Next, select the Image Carousel block from the Advanced Blocks panel and drag it onto your page.

Choose the SeedProd image carousel block

You can click the block on your page to see the carousel settings. For example, clicking the Image 1 section shows an option to use your own image from your computer or media library or choose a royalty-free stock image.

Add images to your WordPress image carousel

After adding an image to the carousel, you can enter an image caption and click the Add Images button to insert more photos into your carousel slider.

To ensure your carousel looks great on any device, SeedProd automatically adjusts your images for desktops, tablets, and smartphones.

In the Carousel Settings panel, you can adjust your image slider more. For example, you can:

  • Choose a dark or light navigation color
  • Choose to autoplay your carousel gallery
  • Select the autoplay speed in seconds
  • Show or hide image captions
  • Select the gallery alignment
Carousel image settings

If that isn’t enough, you can click the Templates tab to change your gallery image style with fewer clicks. For instance, I chose a style with an image drop-shadow.

WordPress image carousel templates

In the Advanced tab, you can customize the caption typography, borders, and spacing and pick colors and styles that fit your brand.

When you’re happy with the look of your landing page carousel, click the green Save button at the top-right corner of your screen.

Save your landing page design

Step 5: Configure Your Landing Page Settings

After perfecting your landing page design, there are several settings you can configure.

First, you can click the Connect tab at the top of your screen to connect your favorite email marketing service. This is an excellent way to ensure that any new leads are automatically added to your email list.

SeedProd email marketing integtrations

SeedProd integrates with all major email marketing providers, including:

Check out the email integration documentation for help connecting your email list.

Next, click the Page Settings tab to see other settings you can configure in SeedProd. The settings page typically has 5 sections, but this depends on the type of page you build and your SeedProd plan.

landing page settings

For example, you can edit your general settings and give your page a new name and URL or set it to draft or publish.

You can also connect a Google Analytics plugin and WordPress SEO plugins to track and improve your page’s performance.

And in the Scripts area, you can add custom scripts and code snippets, such as cookies and tracking pixels.

Lastly, the Custom Domain section lets you connect your page to any domain name you like without installing WordPress on it.

When you’ve finished configuring your page settings, remember to click the Save button.

Step 6: Publish Your Image Carousel Page

Before you publish your landing page, preview it on mobile to ensure your design looks good for mobile users. Otherwise, it can hurt their user experience.

To see a preview of your page, click the Mobile Preview icon at the bottom of your screen.

Preview your landing page on mobile

You can then view your page as it would look to anyone browsing from a mobile device and make changes with the visual editor.

You can also quickly move between desktop and mobile text elements in any block with typography settings. This allows you to make changes to either your mobile or desktop page without switching view mode.

Edit your landing page for mobile devices

When you’re happy with both your mobile and desktop landing page versions, click the dropdown arrow on the green save button and select Publish.

Publish your landing page with WordPress image slider

Then, you can click the See Live Page button on the following screen to preview your landing page.

Here’s how my image carousel looks on my test website:

Landing page with a WordPress image carousel slider

Your page is now live, complete with a fully responsive WordPress image carousel to showcase multiple images at once.

How to Add Image Carousels to WordPress Posts

I often recommend Jetpack for beginners because it’s robust and versatile and offers an easy setup process that I have streamlined over the years.

Jetpack is a free plugin that adds a ton of useful features to your WordPress site.

Jetpack WordPress plugin

For instance, it can scan your site for security issues and offer brute-force protection from bots and hackers. You can also use it to lazy load images, share content on social media, and more.

More importantly, Jetpack has a feature that allows you to show full-screen carousel galleries in both posts and pages. This feature works perfectly with the block editor (Gutenberg editor), making it simple to add carousels directly to your posts and pages.

Keep reading to find out how to use Jetpack’s free WordPress image carousel feature.

Step 1: Install and Activate the Jetpack Plugin

The first step is to install and activate Jetpack. To do this, go to your WordPress admin area and click Plugins » Add New.

From there, scroll down until you see the Jetpack plugin, and click Install Now, then Activate.

Install the jetpack plugin for WordPress

The next step is to go to Jetpack » Settings from the left-hand navigation panel and click the Writing tab.

At the top of the following screen, you’ll see the Media panel. In this area, click the Display images in a full-screen carousel gallery toggle to the on position.

Enable jetpack carousel galleries

You can also choose to:

  • Show photo Exif metadata in the carousel
  • Show the comments area in the carousel

And pick a white or black color scheme.

Make sure you click the Save Changes button before moving on.

Step 3: Add a Slideshow to Your WordPress Post or Pages

Now, you’re ready to create an image carousel in any WordPress post or page for free.

Embed the Jetpack slideshow block

To easily add a carousel to a WordPress post, create a new post, or edit an existing post. Then click the plus icon inside the block editor to add a new WordPress block, and click the Slideshow block to add it to your post.

Upload photos or choose images from your WordPress media library

Then, you can click the Upload button to start uploading images to your gallery from your computer. Or you can click the Media Library button to insert images that are already in your WordPress media library.

Now, choose which images you want to add and click the Create New Gallery button.

Add images to your gallery

On the next screen, you can add captions to your photos to explain what each image is about. Then, just click the Insert Gallery button to add it to your post.

Add your image gallery to your WordPress post or page

You should now see a preview of your image carousel in your WordPress post. It will have arrows that allow you to navigate between photos and pagination dots that show the number of images in the gallery.

You'll see a preview of your image gallery inside your WordPress editor

In the slideshow settings panel on the right, you can captivate your audience with transition effects. A range of animations allow you to slide or fade between images, creating a dynamic visual experience that engages your visitors.

You can also change the image size, autoplay the slides, and delay transitions.

Edit your jetpack carousel settings

When you’re happy with how your image carousel looks, click the Publish or Update button. Now, you can preview your post to see your image carousel gallery in action.

Preview the live version of your WordPress image carousel

How to Create WooCommerce Product Image Carousels

If you have an online that uses WooCommerce, you can easily display product photos in an attractive image slider. For this, I’ll use the free Product Gallery Slider WordPress plugin.

After installing and activating the plugin, navigate to Codeixer » Product Gallery from your WordPress dashboard. Here, you can choose your slider type, dimensions, navigation options, styling, and more.

WooCommerce product gallery slider settings

Next, go to the product page where you want to add the image carousel. In right-hand sidebar, you’ll see a new panel called Product Gallery.

Add WooCommerce product slider images

This is where you’ll add the images for your product carousel. Simply click Add Images to select images from your Media Library, or drag and drop them from your computer.

From there, go ahead and update the product, and that’s it. Now, you can view the page and see your WooCommerce image carousel in action.

WooCommerce Product gallery image carousel.

More Questions About WordPress Image Carousels

What Is A WordPress Image Carousel?
A WordPress image carousel is a slideshow feature on a WordPress website that cycles through multiple images in one spot. It helps display several images in an organized, eye-catching way and can include controls for users to move through the images or set them to rotate automatically.
Where’s the best place to use an image carousel?
The best places to use an image carousel are on your homepage, in product galleries, or portfolios. Carousels are great for highlighting featured products, client reviews, or key projects, especially in areas where they’ll catch visitors’ attention right away.
What is the difference between a slider and a carousel in WordPress?
In WordPress, a slider shows one image at a time, while a carousel displays several images side-by-side that users can scroll through. Sliders are best for focusing on single images or messages, while carousels are better for showing multiple items in a row.
Should I have a carousel on my website?
Add a carousel to your website if you want to display several images or items in one spot, like products or testimonials. Carousels are effective on pages with a lot of traffic, but don’t overuse them, as they can slow down your site and distract some visitors.
What is the best size for a carousel in WordPress?
The best size for a carousel in WordPress is usually 1200×600 pixels, as this size provides a good balance between image quality and load speed. Adjust the size based on your site’s layout, but ensure the images are large enough to display clearly on both desktop and mobile devices.
How do I add a carousel to WordPress without Plugins?
To add a carousel to WordPress without plugins, use the built-in block editor. First, go to the page or post, click “Add Block,” and select “Gallery.” Upload your images, then click “Settings” to adjust columns, image size, and layout. Adding some custom CSS can enhance its carousel effect if desired.

Next, More WordPress Image Tips

I hope this post helped you learn how to create an image carousel in WordPress.

Creating and customizing any WordPress page with SeedProd is super easy. It doesn’t require any code, you won’t need to hire a developer, and the result is a landing page focused on converting your traffic into leads and sales.

So, what are you waiting for?

You might also like the following guides to improve your WordPress images:

Thanks for reading! We’d love to hear your thoughts, so please feel free to leave a comment with any questions and feedback.

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author avatar
Stacey Corrin Writer
Stacey has been writing about WordPress and digital marketing for over 10 years and on other topics for much longer. Alongside this, she's fascinated with web design, user experience, and SEO.

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