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How to Build Google Web Stories in WordPress?

Posted on the 27 November 2020 by Wbcom Designs @wbcomdesigns

All the social media platforms have added stories as their features. The basic concept of stories is to tell the story through images, videos or gifs in a specific constrained time. 

Long back when Instagram introduced stories, it has been seen that stories are more easily accessible, engaging as well as creates branding. Now, almost every social media platform has this feature. Google has also introduced such features as Google web stories. 

What are web stories ? 

Web stories are basically a storytelling format which allows full screen experience that helps every type of content to be imaginable. Unlike Instagram Google web stories are open and freely distributable. You can even publish them on the website or create your own. 

Back in 2018, Google has introduced AMP stories for quickly building visual stories. In May 2020, Google renamed AMP stories to Google web stories and by October 2020, it launched on one of the most popular platforms “WordPress”. This webstories plugin has made easy the process of building stories on the platform which you can access free.  

This year Google has dedicatedly brought improvement to its earlier products. It has also announced that tools like Google search console & Rich Results Testing Tools also recognises web stories. Also, in popular communities, there are chatters like stories within content that help boost its reach & traffic. 

There are speculations that these stories can pop up everywhere in order to track the performance of this feature on Google search engine. But, you won’t find it on social media platforms like Facebook & Instagram. Definitely, you will get a lot of functionality to beautifully design your web stories.  

How to get started with Google web stories ? 

Step 1 : Install Web Stories for WordPress plugin from WordPress admin dashboard or manually download from plugin repository.

To do so follow the steps provided below : 

  1. Login to your wordpress website backend.     
  2. On your left menu, go to “Navigation”.
  3. Click on “Add New”.
  4. Search “Web Stories” on the search bar
  5. Click on the “Web stories” plugin pop up in the search bar. 
  6. Install the plugin and activate it on your website backend. 
  7. Now open the web stories plugin option that appears on the navigation menu on your left in the dashboard.  

How to install the Web Stories plugin ? 

Now, Open the web stories dashboard, 

Step 2 : Select the stories from the sidebar to navigate to the web stories dashboard. 

build Google web stories in WordPress

Step 2 : Create your own web stories, Click on the create new story and select explore templates for selecting your favorite templates and styles. 

build Google web stories in WordPress

Step 3 : Filter your stories.

You can find out all your stories using filters. Select “draft” status & “published” status tabs at the top of the web stories dashboard. You can also sort the stories using filters like name, date created, last modified, or their creator.

Step 4 : Change the view 

You can change the view type in WordPress. Click on the icon next to sort drop down. You can also switch to the classic WordPress table view next to the grid icon.

Step 5 : Add Google Analytics, Logo & update the sharing settings : 

You can add Google Analytics tracking ID, Logo, and can change the data sharing settings by clicking editor settings. 

How to use the Google Web Stories Editor ? 

There are three panels in the editor section of the plugin : 

  1. The Element Panel 
  2. The Workspace
  3. The Design Panel
build Google web stories in WordPress

Panel 1 : The first panel, The element panel, you can upload assets, add images, text and shapes to your stories. 

element panel

Panel 2 :  In the Workspace panel, you can write title, add & remove story pages. You can design your page using assets and elements. Also, you can view the keyboard shortcuts, enable & disable the safe zone and can view the stories in grid form.

build Google web stories in WordPress

Panel 3 : The Design Panel contains 2 tabs : Design & Document 

How to Build Google Web Stories in WordPress?

You can use the design tab to make changes in the elements like position, size, font properties and more. You can make the changes in the order of the elements through the layer panel at the bottom of the design tab. 

create story

You can control how your story is published through the “Document” tab. Add any important metadata and control whether pages auto-advance or need to be tapped manually.

build Google web stories in WordPress

How to build Google Web Stories ?

As instructed above, install the plugin to the wordpress site. Go to the Web story by Google plugin on the wordpress dashboard. 

  1. As you open the plugin, you will find a number of templates from which you can choose your template according to the requirements. 
  2. After choosing the right template, add images  from the library. Pro Tip : Vertical Images works best. 
  3. You can also upload the videos in the story. The recommended time range for videois 15 minutes Maximum. The videos should contain subtitles for understanding. 
  4. Create backgrounds with solid or gradient colours or add overlays. 
  5. Google recommends to add text to the story of minimum font size 24. Keep the text minimum as the idea is to highlight the headlines and attract the viewer to click to know more. 
  6. Add the video clips or background sound to the story, it creates interest and increases engagement. 
  7. Remember Shorter the better, your story should be snackable to consume. 
  1. How can you make your story more engaging ? 

Use CTA (Call to Action) links to interact with your audience. The google web stories has a great option of clickable links which helps you to drive the audience to the landing page. 

  1. Now, your story is ready to go, you can check the preferences at the right hand tab on “Document”. Here you can set the author, publisher logo, & cover image. Pro Tip : The cover image works best with square canvas. 

Pro Tip: After publishing the web story, don’t forget to embed the link of the story to your blog posts. It will give your story as well as the blog posts a traffic & engagement boost. 

Final Thoughts on How to Build Google Web Stories in WordPress

You have just read the mechanism & steps to build the web story using the Google web story plugin in WordPress. Remember, Google has worked hard on this feature, so implementing it as soon as possible on your website or blog can definitely help you rank on Google search engine. Remember, Create web stories as short as snackable as possible. If you have any queries you can comment down below. Stay tuned with us for such google updates! 


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