How to Improve Your WordPress Blog with Estimated Reading Time Feature

Have you ever wondered how long it takes for people to read the posts on your WordPress blog? You are not alone if you have. Knowing how much time they will need to spend reading your content is something that many readers find useful. This can assist them in selecting whether to open your content and read it right away, bookmark it for later, or share it with others.

We'll explain how to add an estimated reading time feature to your WordPress blog in this blog post. Depending on the quantity of words, photographs, and comments in your blog articles, this tool will estimate how long it will take to read each one.

Additionally, you will discover how to add a progress bar to display the amount of reading your readers have done, as well as how to alter the reading time notification's design and positioning.

Why Should Your WordPress Blog Include an Estimated Reading Time?

You and your readers can gain from including an estimated reading time on your WordPress blog in a number of ways.

To name a few, these are:

• It may improve reader retention and engagement: You can motivate readers to finish reading your piece by letting them know how long it will take, especially if it's a short and simple read. Your page views may rise and your bounce rate may decrease as a result.
• It might increase your authority and trustworthiness: You can demonstrate to your readers that you value their time and attention and that you have taken the time to create insightful and meaningful information by including an estimated reading time. This can improve your standing and credibility as a blogger.
• It can enhance your social media presence and SEO: You may improve the look and appeal of your blog posts for search engines and social media networks by including an estimated reading time. By doing this, you may improve your Google ranking and increase clicks and shares on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

How Can You Add Reading Time Estimates to Your WordPress Blog?

While there are a few other ways to include an estimated reading time on your WordPress site, using a plugin is the simplest and most common option.

Many plugins are available to assist you with this operation, but for the purposes of this tutorial, we will be using the Read Meter plugin. With this lightweight and free plugin, you can add a progress bar and reading time to your WordPress blog entries.

First, you will need to install and activate the Read Meter plugin.

After the plugin is activated, you must configure its settings by going to the Settings » Read Meter page in your WordPress admin panel.

You can choose which post types to display the reading time for under the 'General Settings' page.

You can use the plugin, for example, to show the reading time on the pages and posts of your blog. This is something that your product pages will allow you to accomplish if you have an online store.

Additionally, you can change the reading speed. The plugin estimates a reading speed of 275 words per minute by default for calculating reading time.

When calculating how long it will take to read the blog post, there is also the option to include comments and photographs.

The text that appears can then be customized by going to the 'Read Time' tab.

In addition, you have the ability to modify how the reading time alert appears.

Numerous settings are available, including those for the text color, backdrop color, font size, and read time position.

Remember to click "Save" once you've finished making the adjustments.

After that, you may adjust the settings by selecting the "Progress Bar" option. You can choose to have the bar at the top or bottom of the page, or you can remove it entirely from your WordPress website.

Its style, primary color, backdrop color, and bar thickness are also modifiable.

Click "Save" once your progress bar settings have been adjusted. The anticipated reading time for each post will now be visible to your readers.

You may now view the reading time and a progress meter by going to your WordPress website.

Conclusion

One of the best ways to enhance your WordPress blog and draw in more users is to include an estimated reading time in your content. It can help you improve your SEO and social media presence, raise reader engagement, and establish your credibility.

You can quickly add and personalize the reading time notice and progress bar to your WordPress blog posts by using the Read Meter plugin. Additionally, you can add the reading time to particular articles and pages by using the [rt_reading_time] shortcode.

With the help of this blog post, we hope you can better utilize the estimated reading time feature on your WordPress blog.