How to Add Google FriendConnect to a WordPress.org Blog

Website owners who created their site through WordPress.org are often left scratching their heads as to the why and how of adding a Google FriendConnect widget to their sidebar. But there are good reasons why you should consider doing so, and this tutorial will take you through the steps of adding it to your WordPress blog.

Adding Google FriendConnect to WordPress

1. From your Dashboard, navigate to Plugins–>Add New and search for Google Friends Connect. Then install and activate the plugin.

Google FriendConnect

2. After installation, navigate to Appearance–> Widgets.

Google FriendConnectAdd the Google Friends Connect widget to your sidebar.

Google FriendConnect

3. If you look at your blog, you will see this:

Google FriendConnect4. Sign in to google.com/friendconnect and accept their terms of service to continue.

Google FriendConnect

5. Next, you’ll be asked a few questions about the website this widget will be added to.

Google FriendConnect

6. After clicking Continue, you’ll land on a page wishing you Congratulations! But stop before clicking the Add the Members Gadget button.

Google FriendConnect

7. Take a peek at the URL of the Congratulations page. Make note of the end of the URL, starting at “id=” and the ID number that follows. You will need to copy and paste that ID number into the GFC widget on your WordPress blog.

Google FriendConnect

8. Returning to your WordPress site, paste the ID number into the Google FriendConnect Site-ID field.

Google FriendConnect

9. Save the changes you made to the widget, and refresh your homepage. You should now have a completed Google FriendConnect widget, ready to receive new followers.

Google FriendConnect

***Please note: This tutorial is for adding a new GFC widget to a WordPress site, and NOT how to transfer an existing GFC widget to a WordPress site.

16 Comments

  1. Kristin @ What She Said

    Are you, by chance, going to write a post on how to transfer a GFC widget to a WP.org site? Because I did it, but I’m pretty sure I did it incorrectly. I basically just set up the gadget via GFC, got the code, and then pasted it into an arbitrary text widget on WP. Which worked fine, except that I think my older GFC readers – the ones who joined when I was still on Blogger – aren’t actually getting my new feed.

    So basically, I have the widget, but the feed is wrong. At least for my older GFC followers. New GFC followers are golden. I know because I signed up to follow myself through GFC.

    That all make sense?

    Reply
  2. Heather Powers

    having problems with google friend connect.
    i never got the option to put the id in there. and when i tried to paste the code it didn’t work.

    Heather

    Reply
    • admin

      Hi Heather,

      This tutorial is for WP.org users. Unfortunately, WP.com is very limited in the “third party widgets” and other plugins that it will allow. It is one of the disadvantages of WP.com vs. WP.org. That is why is isn’t working for you.

      Thanks!

      Reply
  3. hopefulleigh

    Do you know if there’s a way to add GFC to Typepad? I’d like to give my readers that same option when I unveil the new blog but it doesn’t seem like it’s possible.

    Reply
    • admin

      Yes, there is. Though adding it to a TypePad blog is a bit more involved. I can email you with more information. Thanks!

      Reply
    • admin

      Yes, there is! It’s a bit of work, but let me find some tutorials for you.

      Reply
  4. me

    Thank you thank you thank you! This worked perfectly. I really appreciate you sharing and making it so simple. {{HUGS!}}

    Reply
  5. Theresa

    Thanks! This was a big help in setting up GFC. I appreciate the tutorial. I am going to read some of your other post & follow along. Theresa

    Reply
  6. Heidi Smith Luedtke

    I still can’t get this widget to work…is there a trick to doing this when your blog is NOT the front page of your site?

    Reply
    • admin

      When you added the widget to your blog page’s sidebar, what did it look like? How far into the process did you get before it got wonky?

      Reply
  7. sara

    do you have to have a wordpress hosted site to do this? like for instance my blog is iomoo.wordpress.com, does it not work for that? :/ i can’t find the plugins page on my dashboard is the problem.
    i really just want to add GFC though! 🙁

    Reply
    • admin

      Unfortunately, the lack of plugins is a downside to WP.com blogs. It’s great that you’d love to add that to your blog, but WordPress.com does not allow for it.

      Reply
  8. Jon

    Mine is not working, I’ve followed the steps perfectly.

    Also, a note, yours is doing the same thing mines is. It’s just a little line.

    Reply
    • admin

      Hi Jon,

      I just stopped by your site, and your GFC widget seems to be working. For the past couple months, all GFC widgets have had “appearance” problems. No one seems to know why, but often if you refresh the page, it will appear.

      Also, if you’d like to change the color from the default light blue to something that better matches your site, you can play around with the hex code in the widget setting.

      Thanks!

      Reply
  9. Jeemah Villaverde

    Hi! 🙂 is this still working until now? Coz i have difficulty integrating gfc to my blog :(( can’t find the plug-in thingy. ): please help?

    thanks!

    -Jem

    Reply
    • Admin

      Hi Jem,

      Looks like your blog is on WP.com, which is the “free” version of WordPress and very limited with plugin options. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to integrate GFC onto WP.com, but at the same time, GFC is being disabled by Google come March 1 for all non-Blogger blogs. So you wouldn’t be able to keep that subscription option for long anyway. Thanks!

      Reply

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