What Gravatar is and Why You Should Start Using it Right Away

Gravatar is and Why You Should Start Using it Right Away

One of the most important principles and advantages of working on the Internet is automation. It is automation that allows us to increase labor productivity and increase efficiency with less time and efforts.

Well, if you want to understand what Gravatar is and what it has to do with the automation and being recognized in the digital platform, keep reading our article.

Very often those who are new to WordPress, feel confused about how they can change the default Mystery Man icon appearing next to their name.

This is default WordPress image that can be quickly and easily replaced by a more descriptive image or icon that will make you stand out from the crowd and be easy to notice.

1. What is Gravatar?

Actually, what is Gravatar and why you need to use it for WordPress hosted website or blog? On the whole, Gravatar is a web service and one of the automated ways of your identity or brand establishment through “Generally Recognized Avatar”.

As soon as you jump into this service and add your specific Gravatar, it is going to be recognized and showcased throughout numerous platforms and content management systems that come with prebuilt Gravatar support.

It means that you are not required to add your Gravatar in different platforms you are using and are going to save your precious time on other important actions. Your unique images created by Gravatar is going to follow you from site to site you visit.

As for WordPress particularly, it also celebrates support for Gravatar, it showcases default Gravatar or grey “mystery man” icon whenever people leave their comments or write posts.

Once this icon is replaced by the photo or image chosen by the user, WordPress will pull the new Gravatar and will showcase it within the scope of its website or blog.

2. Why should you start using it right away?

If you are a newly started business, long established company with a huge client base, private contractor or non profit organization volunteer, using the advantages of it is a must.

When you present yourself with Gravatar, it is going to follow you around multiple websites and you are more likely to be noticed and identified.

This technique will let you overcome the necessity of adding your image every time you comment or post in different platforms, blogs and forums on the one hand. On the other, sometimes images are more talkative than words and long descriptions.

Therefore, arming your presence with the right Gravatar is what will make you presentable across the global digital arena.

3. How to get a Gravatar?

Now when we have identified what Gravatar is and how you as a WordPress website owner or user can benefit from it, let’s see which steps are to be followed for you to use this wonderful mechanism and establish your individuality or branding through it.

In a nutshell, getting Gravatar is easy and quick. Just visit www.gravatar.com (official website of Gravatar) and sign up for free with the email address you are using for commenting or adding blogs mostly.

If you don’t have a WordPress account, you need to register first. Along with email, you will be required to add also username and set a password.

A notification mail will be sent to you with a button to click on and activate your account. Once your WordPress account is active, now you can log in to Gravatar with the same email.

Further, you need to assign a specific Gravatar to your email address. If you don’t want to add one, a custom one will be generated on the basis of the settings of a site it showcases in.

Follow the link “Add one by clicking here” and you will be redirected to a new page where you are free to choose one of the given ways of adding your Gravatar. You can upload a new one, use URL, choose from past uploads or use webcam to take a new shoot.

If you want to upload new image, Gravatar will automatically resize if it is large. File size limit in this case is 1 MB.

Upload your image and next you can have small and large preview of your image and will be able to crop it to look its absolute best. It can be your own photo, the logo of your company or some unique image having to do with your business or portfolio, etc.

The next step is to understand what Gravatar is and to what audience it can be showcased. Here you need to choose a rating for your Gravatar.

G rating means it is suitable for all kinds of websites with any kind of audience or followers. If the image contains some rude gestures, provocative dressing, some swear or rude expressions and words, you need to choose other rates such PG, R or X.

In this case, your Gravatar will be showcased to a specific audience.

Once your rating is set, congratulations. You have successfully added your Gravatar which is going to follow your name wherever you are in the diversity of WordPress and other platforms and areas.

If you want to set Gravatars for your WordPress users from your website, again you will be redirected to the same www.gravatar.com from your site’s Admin Dashboard to choose profile picture for the User from Gravatar.

Controls and settings available on Gravatar, can be accessed through Settings, Discussion page of your WP Admin options as well.

Here you can choose to show Avatars, set maximum rating, choose which Avatar for users to be displayed on your website like Mystery Man, blank, Gravatar Logo or custom generated ones.

That’s it, folks! We do really hope we helped you understand what Gravatar is and how you can integrate it into your digital experience to form a part of your virtual activities, from post authoring to commenting on different discussions.

If you are new to websites and more particularly to the term Gravatar, you are bound to be scratching your head right about now. Think avatar and that should clue you in as to what gravatar is all about.

Essentially, a grava-tar is an image or icon that you use to create a separate identity for yourself, your company or your product.

It is one of the easiest ways for others to recognize you by your gravatar which is why, it is a useful marketing tool.

This is why when it comes to Gravatar, you should start using it right away. You can search online for “gravatar should start using it right away”, that should provide you with more than a few results and lots of information on the same. Here are a few important reasons as to why it makes sense to have your own gravatar.

• Identity: A gravatar can help customers identify with you and your brand easily; that’s why you need to set it up at the earliest. From a marketing perspective, creating an online gravatar can help you re-brand yourself, and even engage much more with customers than before.
  What’s more, with a grava-tar, customers can easily identify with your image/logo and this should even help you boost your conversion rates.
• Better user engagement: A grava-tar can lead to greater interaction with your audience; recently a study highlighted the fact that customers interact more freely in the online medium with those with established identities such as gravatars than otherwise.
  And more importantly, as customers increase their user engagement, you should be able to market your key products and services effectively.
• Better traffic: With a boost in customer engagement, and as customers are able to easily identify with your brand and logo, this should result in better visibility. The added bonus feature is that gravatars are portable and that you need to set up your profile only once.
  And after that, you can use the same grava-tar on websites that come with pre-built gravatar support; so you would not have to go to the trouble of creating a new one all over again. And as you surf online, comment on other websites, interact more with others on these platforms, your gravatar should get displayed alongside which is why it is important that you set one up at the earliest.
• Cost: It costs nothing to set up a gravatar; if you set one up, then you are bound to become more visible and even snag more traffic, as a result of the same.

This is why gravatars are important; some of the other websites even insist that you have a grava-tar set up before you are allowed to post on their website. You can set up a similar policy for your website as well.

With an attractive profile image in place, you should be able to snag enough attention and in the process, get the word out regarding your products and services.