{"id":12326,"date":"2020-09-15T15:00:17","date_gmt":"2020-09-15T13:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/?p=12326"},"modified":"2020-10-09T15:32:17","modified_gmt":"2020-10-09T13:32:17","slug":"estimated-reading-time-wordpress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/estimated-reading-time-wordpress\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Show Estimated Reading Time for Your WordPress Posts"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The prospect of a long read may discourage an otherwise sympathetic visitor. People will, surprisingly often, be daunted by the look of a large block of text. By displaying an estimated reading time for your posts, you help the reader manage their time a little better. Showing them an estimate of the time needed to parse your post, you show your visitors that you appreciate their time<\/strong>, and reassure them that the content they are interested in will not take too long to slog through. A busy reader will appreciate it.
\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”28px”][vc_column_text]We will show you how to use a free plugin to display estimated reading time for your posts, but also to add a reading progress bar to your posts, showing your visitors how far they\u2018ve come.
\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”28px”][vc_column_text]We will be using the Read Meter<\/a> plugin. Unless you are working with a theme that already includes this functionality, you will need to find and install this plugin. If you are not sure how to find, install, and activate a WordPress plugin<\/a>, we have a tutorial for that, too.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”28px”][vc_column_text]Next, you need to configure your plugin. Navigate to Settings > Read Meter<\/strong>. In the General Settings<\/strong> tab, you can set up the estimate calculator in words per minute<\/strong>. The default is 275 words per minute, which is the low- to average- speed for English language. Different languages, of course, have different average reading speeds in words per minute.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”28px”][vc_column_text]You can also choose post types<\/strong> to include (we are keeping to the default, which is posts only). You can also choose to include images<\/strong> and comments<\/strong>. This plugin works from the assumption that the first picture takes12 seconds to parse, the second takes 11, and so on until the 10th image. The tenth and each subsequent image adds three seconds to the estimate \u2013 the assumption being that the reader dedicates more time to perusing the first couple of images, taking less time per picture as they go along. We will include images in our estimate.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”50px”]

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\n \"Read <\/div>\n<\/div>[vc_empty_space height=”38px”][vc_column_text]In the Read Time<\/strong> tab, we can set up the appearance of our estimated reading time. Use the first three checkboxes to set where the estimated reading time will be displayed. We will leave Single Post<\/strong> ticked, but you can also show it for Home<\/strong> and Archive<\/strong> pages.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”28px”][vc_column_text]We will position the Read Time<\/strong> below the post title, change the prefix<\/strong> to Estimated reading time<\/em> (the default being Reading Time<\/em>) and change the postfix<\/strong> to minutes<\/em> rather than the default mins<\/em>.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”28px”][vc_column_text]Next, we will leave the Font Size<\/strong> at 15 pixels, but you can set font size to whatever you like, and we won\u2019t change the margins and padding settings. Finally, we will leave the background colour<\/strong> as is, but change the text colour to a mauve (#aa86a6) to fit the overall theme. We will save our settings and go on to the progress bar.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”50px”]
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\n \"Read <\/div>\n<\/div>[vc_empty_space height=”38px”][vc_column_text]In the Progress Bar<\/strong> tab, we will set the Display Position<\/strong> to Top of the Page<\/strong> to reveal the other options. We will leave the Styles<\/strong> as Normal<\/strong> and set the Background Colour to a light grey (#cbcacb) and the Primary Colour to the same shade of mauve we\u2018ve used before (#aa86a6). We will leave the bar thickness as is. These settings influence what the progress bar looks like. You can tweak them to fit your website style and layout. The Getting Started<\/strong> tab is a simple set of instructions for use of this plugin. If you are reading this, you already have all the information in much greater detail.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”50px”]
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\n \"Read <\/div>\n<\/div>[vc_empty_space height=”38px”][vc_column_text]Once all your changes are saved, you can see what the plugin looks like in a post. And, right below the post title, you can see your time estimate!
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\n \"Read <\/div>\n<\/div>[vc_empty_space height=”90px”][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”blog-magazine-banner”][vc_empty_space height=”81px”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

In Conclusion<\/h2>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]As we have shown, it is very easy to give your visitors that extra bit of information, showing your appreciation for their time. With Read Meter, you have a free and simple solution. Visitors of blogs or text-oriented websites might easily want at least a rough estimate of the time they need to fully appreciate the content you are offering. With an estimated reading time and\/or a progress bar, they will have this information at a glance, whether you are using a theme feature or the Read Meter plugin. Letting your visitors know that reading your posts won\u2019t take up too much of their busy schedule might help you keep your bounce rate low.
\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Want to show your readers you appreciate their time? Try showing them an estimated reading time for your articles: we’ll show you how.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16990,"featured_media":12331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[46,27,15,4,13],"class_list":["post-12326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tutorials","tag-blogging","tag-content","tag-plugins","tag-tips","tag-wordpress"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16990"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}