SlideDeck is one of the most popular and highly-rated premium WordPress plugins for building high-converting responsive content sliders. With SlideDeck, you can quickly create eye-catching video, image and content galleries without touching code.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll cover the A to Z of leveraging SlideDeck to create polished, customizable sliders tailored for your WordPress site that will wow your visitors.
Why Choose SlideDeck for Your WordPress Sliders?
Before we dive into the specifics on using SlideDeck, let’s look at why it‘s an excellent choice for your website:
Rapid Slider Building with Drag and Drop
SlideDeck‘s intuitive drag-and-drop builder makes putting together elegant sliders astonishingly simple and fast. By handling all the technical complexity behind the scenes, you can focus purely on content.
Engaging Dynamic Content from Leading Platforms
Easily set up sliders that pull in viral video and social content from YouTube, Instagram, Flickr and more to tap into what‘s popular while saving time.
Flexible Design Customization with Over 40 "Lenses"
SlideDeck‘s templates make give you designs that would take hours or days to build from scratch. Switch between mobile-friendly templates with one click to fit your brand.
| Advantage | How It Helps You |
|---|---|
| No Coding Skills Required | Get stunning sliders without technical skills with the easy WYSIWYG editor |
| SEO Optimized Setup | Improve rankings with out-of-the-box structured data markup |
| Detailed Usage Analytics | Actionable insights into visitor interactions with your sliders |
| Granular Access Controls | Manage access to prevent content copying |
| Expert Fanatical Support | Get solutions fast with one-on-one US-based support |
According to WPBeginner, over 370,000+ websites leverage SlideDeck for its balance of usability and customizability. Major publishers like NBC, Sony Music and Harvard University use it for mission-critical content.
Now let‘s explore how to tap into SlideDeck’s capabilities for your site.
Getting Started: Installing and Activating SlideDeck
Prerequisite: SlideDeck requires the latest WordPress 5.0+ together with PHP 7.0+
Installation takes just minutes via the standard WordPress plugin process:
- Purchase SlideDeck from CodeCanyon
- Download the plugin ZIP file instantly
- In your WordPress Dashboard, navigate to Plugins > Add New
- Click Upload Plugin, choose the downloaded .ZIP file and Install Now
- After installation completes, click Activate Plugin
That’s all there is to it get SlideDeck running on your site!
Each plan comes with 1 year of support and updates, so don‘t hesitate to reach out. Now let‘s create your first slider.
Showcase Engaging Video Content with a YouTube Slider
Videos can captivate visitors unlike any other media when embedded directly into your page design. For example, a slider with viral YouTube trailers makes an eye-catching homepage header:
Let‘s build this step-by-step:
- Hover over SlideDeck in your WP dashboard and click "Add New"
- Select "YouTube" as the Content Source
- Give your slider a descriptive name like "Popular Movie Trailers"
- Paste in a YouTube Channel ID like
UCzIQbJcmQLuTRQJXC2IuU1g - Configure additional options if desired and hit Apply
SlideDeck automatically pulls in the latest videos based on your criteria. You‘ll instantly have a working video slider!
Take a moment to browse through the various configuration options exposed for fine-tuning the output:
For example, filter by categories or playlists to narrow by video type. Pro tip: Insert related popular videos from other creators to capitalize on trends.
Mixing Multiple Sources into One Unified Slider
A limitation of products like MetaSlider is support for just one content source. But SlideDeck lets you seamlessly mix and match dynamic content in creative ways.
To demonstrate, let‘s complement our YouTube trailers with movie poster images sourced from Flickr:
- Click Add Source and choose Flickr
- Obtain your Flickr User/Group ID
- Enter keywords like
movie, posterunder Photo Tags - Hit Apply to automatically merge Flickr images
Our unified multimedia slider is complete! Visitor attention spans today average just 8 seconds, making varied engaging content key.
Pro tip: Layer in customized text slides with advice relevant to the dynamic media to boost engagement.
Tailoring Slider Design with Lenses and Options
Raw imported media isn‘t enough though – the design must express your brand style. SlideDeck‘s customization flexibility makes this achievable without developer resources.
Start by selecting one of 40+ Lenses – creative templates handling layout, typography, colors etc.
I suggest the Frameless, Storyteller or Vogue lenses for classy modern sites. Avoid Lenses with overly loud colors or complex textures.
Next, open the Options panel visible when editing your slider. Groups here handle:
- Setup: Dimensions, max slides, slider ratio
- Appearance: Colors, styling, spacing
- Content: Captions, titles, slide links
- Playback: Animation timing, autoplay
- Navigation: Arrows, bullets, thumbnails
Combined, you have 100+ settings at your disposal without a developer!
For our hybrid video/image slider:
- Set slide width between 800-1200px
- Reduce Max Slides Per View to 1
- Enable Title and Captions
- Add slide transitions and icon navigation
- Autoplay 4 seconds per slide
Preview and tweak until the presentation feels cohesive and alluring.
Displaying Your Slider Across Your Website
Now for the best part – putting your prized slider in the spotlight across your WordPress site:
Simply choose how to deploy the shortcode generated:
- Fullscreen hero slider on Homepage
- Embed in page and post content
- Sidebar or footer widget
- Template inclusion via Add Shortcode plugin
All methods produce a responsive slider catered to any device. Click the purple SlideDeck icon in the editor toolbar and pick your creation.
If your needs expand, SlideDeck Pro permits advanced loading, APIs and lazy media fetching for blazing performance at scale.
Showcase Products or Portfolio in an SEO-Friendly Gallery
Beyond video and social content, SlideDeck readily powers gorgeous galleries and carousels that feature your own media library. These enable tangible business goals:
- Sell products – Highlight features in an elegant sliding catalog
- Build credibility – Display press, testimonials, certifications
- Establish authority – Showcase work samples, client logos
- Raise awareness – Promote causes, announcements, events
To demonstrate the versatility, we‘ll create an SEO-optimized project portfolio.
Follow along:
- Create a new SlideDeck, this time empty
- Open Options > Content and toggle on Custom Slides
- Hit Add Slides and insert 10 images showcasing top projects
- Enter a title, paragraph excerpt and tags like
design,developmentfor each project slide - Save SlideDeck and set featured image
- Embed your shiny portfolio gallery via shortcode!
By front-loading your most impressive work backed by structured data, you provide tangible social proof while enabling discovery by search engines.
Going Beyond the Basics
While this guide focused on fundamentals, SlideDeck facilitates advanced functionality like:
- Automated social sharing buttons
- Layered slide animations
- Lightbox integration
- Lazy loading optimization
- Custom code injection
- APIs for deeper CMS integration
Developers can even build custom Lenses tailored to your exact specifications.
The Slider Creator from Dtelepathy delivers on the maximum flexibility mantra. Definitely explore the user community for more ideas to elevate your site.
