Why should you use sliders?

After all these negative arguments, you might be wondering why you should use a slider? Firstly, if you choose the right slider plugin you won’t have to worry about the points above. A good slider plugin won’t create serious speed problems for you, and won’t create problems for you. Also, make sure you design your slider carefully to fit the purpose you need it for.

Secondly, sliders have many advantages, and can be used for almost any purpose. Additionally, they fit into any kind of website. I’ve collected some of the most important reasons to use a slider:

1. Sliders save space

This is especially true for product or post sliders, where you can display many items next to each other. As a result, the visitors can get a glimpse of your products or posts. Additionally, they don’t have to scroll too much, or go to other pages and risk leaving your site.

2. Sliders are interactive

Sliders which aren’t auto advancing require the visitor to take action. They need to click on a button to see more slides. So, an interactive slider helps engage users the moment they arrive at your website.

3. Sliders are visually appealing

While they’re more than just eye candies, sliders are design elements. This means they let you get creative and create innovative designs and amaze your visitors. This can result in them spending more time on your site.

4. Sliders make content stand out

Sliders are visual tools, and they can easily grab the visitor’s attention. As a result, they’re perfect for showcasing new content in an attractive manner.

How to create sliders in 2024?

To create good sliders in 2024 make sure you keep the above mentioned points in mind, and do your best to create sliders they don’t apply to. In other words, make sure your slider is SEO friendly, responsive and accessible. Also, make sure you create an eye-catching design that looks nice. Finally, don’t forget to optimize your slider for speed.

Most of these aspects depend on the slider plugin you choose to create your slider. Before settling on a certain plugin, make sure it can create sliders that will benefit your site.

What kind of sliders can you find on modern websites?

Modern websites call for modern sliders. But what does this actually mean? Use sliders with a purpose, and make them valuable assets for your site. Don’t use them only to have something on your page that looks fancy. Sliders in 2024 are more than eye candies that take up valuable space.

Here are some examples on what kind of ways you can use sliders in 2024:

Product sliders

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Product sliders are the most common slider types on modern websites. Basically, you can find at least one on every ecommerce website. Sliders can showcase a bunch of products, without taking up too much space. Typically a product slider displays 3 to 6 slides next to each other. It displays an image of the product, its price, category and a CTA button to check its details. Of course, it can display extra information, like the product’s rating.

Post Slider

Live PreviewBloggers love post sliders. A post slider is a good way to feature the most recent, or most popular articles anywhere on their site. As a result, these articles can get more views, because the visitors can find them more easily.

Portfolio slider

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Showcasing your portfolio in a creative and unique way can help you get more work. There are many photographers, designers and developers out there, and clients can have a hard time choosing. A creative portfolio makes you stand out of the crowd and get more clients. Additionally, it tells your future clients they’ll stand out, too, if they work with you.

Logo slider

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Usually you can find a logo slider on websites which sell products or services. They use the logo slider to showcase some of the big name customers they work with. To make it simple, logo sliders are marketing tools, to help increase sales. After all, if someone is good enough for a big company such as Amazon, it’s good enough for you as well.

Image gallery with thumbnails

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A thumbnail gallery is another popular way to use a slider. In this case the slider acts as a gallery, rather than an actual slider. It helps to display your images in an engaging way. The thumbnails are great for two reasons. Firstly, you can use them for navigation. Secondly, they indicate how many images you can see. The most common way to display the image gallery is to put the thumbnails to the bottom of the slider. But you can also find thumbnail galleries where the images are on the left or right side.

Testimonial slider

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Seeing satisfied customers of a product or service can help convince hesitant customers to make a purchase. So, they can help you generate revenue. Using a slider is the best way to display testimonials on your site. The potential customers can browse them in a comfortable way, so make sure you take advantage of it!

Storytelling slider

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Every slider tells a story. But interactive sliders, where the users can click on buttons to advance create a memorable experience and visitors will likely come back later.

Video sliders

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Video sliders generally don’t contain static images, just videos. You can use them to display tutorials, courses or even introduce your products. They’re one of the best demonstrating tools at your disposal, and it’s worth using it on your site.

Photography slider

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If you’re a photographer, you must have lots of images you want to show on your site. Good news: sliders are great tools to showcase pictures, which makes them perfect for photographers. You can create a nice image gallery, add your captions and let your visitors enjoy your photos.

Conclusion

Are sliders back? Yes they are! In fact, they’ve never left, they just evolved to fit better into modern websites. They have purpose, and they’re not just fancy eye candies anymore. Sliders in 2024 have a solid goal: to help your website. Will you let them do so?

The post Do People Still Use Sliders in 2024? appeared first on Smart Slider 3 — WordPress Plugin.

]]> https://smartslider3.com/blog/9-inspiring-wordpress-carousel-examples/ Mon, 06 Sep 2021 12:06:47 +0000 https://smartslider3.com/?post_type=blog&p=41986 There are many ways to call slider-like elements. You’ve probably heard the most common names by now: slider, carousel, slideshow and showcase. Many people simply call everything “slider”, that looks like a slider. Some distinguish sliders based on how they look. For instance, they call the element that displays one slide, one image at a […]

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]]> There are many ways to call slider-like elements. You’ve probably heard the most common names by now: slider, carousel, slideshow and showcase. Many people simply call everything “slider”, that looks like a slider. Some distinguish sliders based on how they look. For instance, they call the element that displays one slide, one image at a time a slider. They call those sliders that display more slides next to each other, a carousel or a showcase. In this article we’re focusing on the carousel, which displays more slides at once. I’ve also collected some beautiful WordPress carousel examples for you to check out.

What is a WordPress Carousel?

A WordPress carousel refers to the carousels which are created in WordPress. Generally, people use a plugin to create them. In fact, there are many plugins you can use to create a slider or carousel. More importantly, there are many free options you can choose.

Choosing a free slider plugin for your site is not easy. Make sure you pick the one that has: many active installs, good rating and good support. The Free version of Smart Slider has more than 800.000 active installations and 4.9 of 5 rating on WordPress.org. Additionally, even the free version is well supported. Although it’s worth noting to create the WordPress carousel examples you’ll see below, you need Smart Slider Pro.

Why do people use WordPress carousels?

Carousels, regardless of what they’re called, save space. They also help make the visitors’ life easier. For example, by saving them the effort and time they’d have to spend scrolling. Additionally, carousels make it easy to compare similar elements, such as two products.

What’s more, carousels let you be creative. They help you create visually stunning designs to amaze your visitors. So, web developers, designers and clients like them. However, just like any element, carousels should be used with a purpose. There are many purposes for people to create carousels to display various kinds of content. Some of the most common types are:

• Image Carousel. Displays images with, or without caption.
• Post Carousel. Displays latest, most popular or selected list of articles.
• Product Carousel. Displays products, typically from WooCommerce to showcase them and to increase sales.
• Logo Carousel. Displays the logo of sponsors or companies the author has worked with.

9 Inspiring WordPress Carousel Examples

Do you want to create a cool WordPress Carousel to enrich your site, but don’t know where to start? I’ve got great news for you. I’ve collected 9 beautiful WordPress carousel examples you can create for your website. Let’s check them out!

1. Full Width Product Carousel

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Generally, every slide in a product slider looks the same, only their content differs. In other words, they have the same colors, and their content is in the same order. If you want to stand out of the crowd you can mix different looking slides into your slider. For example, if you have more product categories, you can create a slider that shows 3 items from each. Then between them you can add a slide, that’s not about the product. For example, it can be a slide that prompts the visitor to check out the other products in the category. Or, use it to advertise a current or upcoming discount.

2. Product Carousel

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The Product Carousel template looks modern as it uses pastel colors. It features a product image, and another one on mouse enter. Below the product image, visitors can see the name, category and price of the product. As it’s a full width slider, it’s perfect for using it as your shop’s hero.

3. Testimonial Carousel

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Displaying customer testimonials is important for any business. Customers want to make sure they choose the best product, service and company to work with. So, they like to know how satisfied others are with your product or services. A carousel is a great way to display the testimonials, as it allows organizing them.

4. Post Slider Carousel

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This carousel offers you a cool way to showcase your latest posts. You can use it to display the featured image, title, publication date, author and tags of your blog posts.

5. Boxed Product Carousel

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Another cool carousel to display your products in a modern way. Product sliders typically display a picture of the product. This doesn’t only give a visual clue about the item, but also helps raise attention. When you create a product slider, make sure you also display the name, category and price of the product.

6. Logo Carousel

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Most visitors can recognize the logos of large companies. This makes it easy for them to see the big name clients your company worked with. Seeing these logos gives reassurance: if a well-known brand works with you, you’re doing a good job. So, they’ll want to do business with you, too. So logo sliders and testimonials can be used for similar purposes.

7. Post Carousel

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There are many ways to create a post carousel. You can use its featured image as a background and place its details on top. But you can also put the image above, below or next to the textual content. As a result, the visitors can view the images uninterruptedly. For example, on this carousel, the category, title, excerpt and read more button are on the left. The image itself is on the right side.

8. Squarespace carousel

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What makes Squarespace’s carousel interesting is its animation. It’s like there’s a box moving around, that covers different parts of the images. The movement grabs the attention of any visitor and they’ll stop to check it out. It makes the whole carousel look unique and creative which visitors will appreciate.

9. Playersroom carousel

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Playersroom is another example of a carousel that looks cool because of its effects. If you open the site and look at the carousel, it doesn’t seem special. But if you move your mouse over an image, it displays a text which describes what product you see. It’s a cool way of making the carousel interactive.

Conclusion

Don’t be afraid to use a carousel on your site! Carousels, and any other type of sliders are great design elements and will enrich your site. Additionally, they save space, look great and make your site more interesting to your visitors. Let these cool WordPress Carousel examples inspire you to create something awesome!

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]]> https://smartslider3.com/blog/testimonial-slider/ Mon, 30 Mar 2020 12:18:05 +0000 https://smartslider3.com/?post_type=blog&p=15039 It’s common to buy products or services online. However, before someone decides to spend money online, they study the vendor. The buyers always want to be certain they invest their money well. They look for happy owners of the particular product. This makes testimonials important parts of commercial websites. Testimonials help to build trust in […]

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]]> It’s common to buy products or services online. However, before someone decides to spend money online, they study the vendor. The buyers always want to be certain they invest their money well. They look for happy owners of the particular product. This makes testimonials important parts of commercial websites. Testimonials help to build trust in your potential, but hesitant customers. With this in mind, testimonials are best written by your actual customers. Otherwise, you might lose the trust of future consumers, and your income as well.

How to get more testimonials? Cleverly ask customers for reviews. Ask your buyers, after they bought the product or services, to tell their experiences. Let them use their own words, as that makes the testimonial slider unique and more reliable. In other words, avoid asking your customers to rate you on a scale of one to ten. Rather, ask them to write a comment with their own words. Lead them with helpful questions! For example, ask them which feature they liked the most and why. Four or five questions like this can get you a nice testimony from the buyers. Keep in mind that a simple ten-star rating won’t ever be as powerful as someone stating “I love this product!”.

Why should you use a slider to display your testimonials?

When you sell something online, you want to convert visitors to customers as fast as possible. There are several ways to do this. For instance, it’s a popular way to put testimonials on the home page. Usually, they put them right before the buy now button, which can raise a problem. The testimonials can take up lots of vertical space as people love talking about things they like. So, your potential buyer has to spend their valuable time scrolling through a long list of text. But they wouldn’t have to do that. Exploring the benefits of video testimonials, particularly in slider format, could present a more engaging, time-efficient alternative for buyers. See, here’s the part where it matters what questions you asked from your buyers. If you asked the right questions, the first couple of testimonies have convinced the visitor. They’re trying to buy now – but they need to scroll a lot first.

So, why should you use a testimonial slider instead? Well, a testimonial slider saves you lots of vertical space. A testimonial slider shows the testimonial text submitted by your customers. The testimonies are presented in a beautiful, modern and mobile friendly way. The most important task of your website is to make sure your product or service and stand out from the crowd. An effective testimonial widget will prove your product or service trustworthy. The goal is to help to build trust between you and your customers and testimonial sliders help a lot with this.

So, why should you use a testimonial slider instead? Well, it shows the testimonial text submitted by your customers. Additionally, a testimonial slider saves you lots of vertical space. The testimonies are presented in a beautiful, modern and mobile friendly way. The most important task of your website is to make sure your product or service and stand out from the crowd. An effective testimonial widget will prove your product or service trustworthy. The goal is to help to build trust between you and your customers and testimonial sliders help a lot with this.

Create testimonial sliders with Smart Slider 3

Smart Slider 3 is an easy to use slider plugin. You can learn it fast and start creating beautiful sliders in minutes. It’s a great plugin you can use to create nice testimonial sliders for your WordPress site. Here are 6 reasons to choose Smart Slider 3 to create your testimonial widget:

1. It’s easy to learn how to use the plugin
2. You don’t need coding knowledge to create beautiful slider testimonials
3. You can create any layout you want.
4. Responsive and mobile friendly result
5. Visual, drag’n’drop slide editing
6. Several ready to use testimonial slider examples, which you can import with one click

Smart Slider 3 will help you create amazing WordPress testimonial sliders which convert. Once you create your beautiful testimonial slider, it’s easy to add it to your site via shortcode.

Next level testimonial sliders for the best user experience

When people display testimonials on their website, they rarely show only one testimony. As a matter of fact, the more testimonies you show, the better chances you have to convert the visitor. So there’s a big chance you’ll have more than 10 testimonials on your site. Why would that be a problem? When you need to update your testimonials for any reason, it’ll be time-consuming. Say, you decide you need to change the layout – you’d have to do that for every single testimonial slide. Smart Slider 3 comes to the rescue with its amazing feature: the dynamic slide generator. This feature makes Smart Slider 3 the best WordPress testimonial plugin available.

Display your testimonials using a dynamic slide generator

The dynamic slide generator is one of the most amazing features of Smart Slider 3. It’s capable of dynamically fetching content from your WordPress site. This includes posts, pages or custom post types as well. For example, you can create a new custom post type to store your testimonials. This way you can add testimonials by creating a new post. How’s that going to help to make changes in your testimonial slider fast and easily? I’m glad you asked.

When you work with a dynamic slide generator, you actually work on one single slide. All other slides are going to copy this layout. If you need to add a new layer, change a color or font family, you’ll need to do it only once. Dynamic slides make the testimonial slider creation process easy and convenient. If you do not need to make any layout changes to your slides, you don’t need to touch them. When you add a new post, the dynamic slide generator pulls it to your testimonial widget. This makes it easy to add or remove new testimonials and change the layout.

Stunning testimonial slider examples

Now you’ve learned why you should use a testimonial slider on your website. It’s time to see some inspiring examples, to create a beautiful testimonial slider. The samples below were created in Smart Slider 3, and you can import them to your website if you like them.

Simple Testimonial

The Simple Testimonial slider, as the name suggests, is a plain testimonial slider. It’s elegant and modern and it’s a great choice to show your testimonies. There’s a static background image behind each slide. The slide navigation is straightforward: there are arrows and bullets. The slider is mobile friendly, which means you can switch slides by swiping.

Static Testimonial

The Static testimonial slider is a great choice when you have a few testimonies to show. We’ve built it to display four testimonial texts, so it works best if you have the same number of testimonies. In the background you can see a nice video playing while you read the text. You can change the video to something more relevant to your product or service.

Testimonial Carousel

The Testimonial Carousel is the best way to show many testimonials in your WordPress carousel. Every testimony needs little space, and you can see three slides at a time. The structure is clear which makes this type of testimonial slider very effective.

Testimonial Thumbnail

Want to have a testimonial slider to show what the companies you’ve worked with say about you? Look no further! The Testimonial Thumbnail slider example is the perfect choice for this. Your future customer can navigate by clicking on the logos at the bottom. These logos are visible all the time on the slider, they’re easy to spot when the visitors scan your site. The slider is attractive so the visitor will check it out, even if they had no particular interest in your testimonials yet. Is there any better way to show how awesome your product or service is than showing which companies love it?

Testimonial Showcase

You don’t have avatars from your customers which you could show in your testimonial slider? No problem! The Testimonial Showcase slider demonstrates how important a good testimonial text is. If you have good text, you don’t need avatars to have a testimonial slider that converts. If you want to strengthen your message, drop a 5-star image to the slider, like in the demo above. Your visitors will love it! This slider has another great use. Have you got a page dedicated to each testimony? Use the Read more button to connect the page with each testimony slide.

Final Thoughts/Conclusion

Every online merchant needs to have customer testimonials on their website. Their words help to build trust, and it does matter how you present the testimonials. You don’t need fancy effects to have testimonials that convert. Nor should you want to waste the visitor’s time by forcing them to scroll for ages. It’s high time to get rid of the long, regular testimonials! Use a testimonial slider instead, which saves space on your site. It also shows your visitors you value their time and attention. Why not start building a testimonial slider now?

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