How to set Up Your Gravatar
Why do you need a Gravatar?
Look Professional
Gravatar (Globally Recognized Avatar) ties your email address to your photo (or logo or other image). Many online services use Gravatar to display that photo with your profile (depending on the service, of course) giving people a glimpse of your brand/biz, providing some credibility, creating trust, and giving you a professional look.
Blog Comment Sections
If you’ve ever written, read or even glanced at a blog post, you’ve probably noticed the comments section below the post. Most blog authors (We say “blog authors” vs. “bloggers” because we want you to know we’re not just talking about people who “only” blog. We’re talking about anyone who has a website with a blog.) require those who make comments to enter their name and email before the comment is approved and posted. (Don’t worry, only the name is posted next to the comment – adding the email provides a way for the blog author to contact you if necessary as well as a way to filter spammers.) There is usually a field for commenters to enter their website (if they have one and want it to be posted) as well.
Linking your website to your comment is helpful because it may entice a fellow reader or commenter to click on your link and start exploring your site. That, of course, could lead to new business for you. So, we definitely recommended!
What's a Gravatar and why do I want one? #shineonline #websitetips Click To Tweet
Look Legit
In addition to your name and email, another nice feature many blog authors add to their comments section is a space for a photo of the person making the comment.
If you have a website, make sure you have a Gravatar set up so that YOU aren’t the one with the “mystery man” icon next to your own comment replies. That would be kinda sad, don’t ya think?
In WordPress, this is simply an option you specify in the Settings –> Discussion section of your dashboard. You check whether or not you want to “Show Avatars” and then specify what the default image should look like if the commenter does not have an avatar set up.
Obviously, your face is a lot nicer to look at than any of those other default images, so let’s make sure you have yours all set up, shall we?
Here’s how to set it up:
WordPress has made this very easy on us (as they do with just about everything web-related). Here are the steps to set up your Gravatar:
- Go to the Gravatar website.
- Click on the big, blue “Create Your Own Gravatar” button.
- Either create a new WordPress.com account or sign in with the one you have already set up. (This is NOT the same as your website admin login or WordPress.org login. You may already have a WordPress.com login if you have Akismet set up on your site or if you use VaultPress. If you have no idea what we’re talking about, it’s safe to say you can go ahead and create a new login.)
- Add a new email address and then upload the photo of your choice. If you want to do this with multiple email addresses, go for it. All you need to do is specify which one you want to make primary (click on one of the email addresses and the option to make it primary will be visible).
TIP: If you have/use an info@, support@, etc. email address for your company, add the company’s logo as the photo! - That’s it! Now, when you comment on blog posts using the email address you set up in Gravatar, you’ll see the photo you associated with that email address next to your comment (if the author has avatars enabled).
BONUS: You’ll find your Gravatar is used for more than just blog comments. Anytime you use the email address(es) you set up with your photo or logo, that image will be used. Places like: other areas of your WordPress website (like Users), Gmail, when you join groups online for a webinar + more!
Now, set up your Gravatar and comment below! We’d love to see your pretty face!
BIG Thanks for this info. Let’s see if this works! Just set my gravatar for the first time.
Sweet! So glad it helped you! Looks great!
Really appreciate the info – but I’m having a hard time linking my username to my website. Do you happen to know what I might be missing? If so, the help would mean a ton.
I think I may have solved the problem.
I was not using the same email registered to my Gravatar (WP.com) account when I submitted comments. I feel pretty dumb.
Maybe others can learn from my mistake.
Oh yay! So glad you found the solution! 🙂
Just testing this all out!
Looks like you got it Carime!
How can I display my gravatar image in my website?
Hi Nick,
Once you have the gravatar set up and associated with your URL, your gravatar will appear whenever you make comments on blog posts on your own website and other websites (if they have gravatars enabled).
I did what you said. It took me to WordPress, but there wasn’t anything that I could find about using my own picture or setting up a gravitar.
Hi Marlon, did you go to this website? https://en.gravatar.com/ There should be a button that says “Create Your Own Gravatar” to use if you do not have a WordPress.com account (you’ll create one here – Gravar is part of WordPress). If you DO have a WordPress.com account, click the “Sign In” button (top right). You can get additional steps here to walk you through creating your Gravatar: https://en.gravatar.com/support/
Thanks for sharing the information. It’s definitely helpful for us.
So glad you found it helpful!
Thanks for the information!
Definitely love this post, waiting for it to show up though!
Thanks, this was helpful.
Now it works
Thanks for the guide! This comment will show me if I did it right. Lol.
thanks
Does replying to comments automatically add the website for your Gravatar or do you need to specify it somewhere in the profile?
Hi Charlie! If you have associated your website with your Gravatar, your name (when you comment) will be linked to your website.
Awesome 🙂
Let’s see if I did it right…