What is Gravatar and how to get it

We probably all know what an avatar is. It is a graphical representation of a user on a website or online gaming communities. It can be an image or an animated gif, depending on the user’s preferences and what a website will allow. Overall, they are pretty easy to set up. The most effort one has to put in probably lies in the selection of the avatar image.

However, there are some websites where things work a little differently, like GitHub, Hootsuite, and sites powered by WordPress. It’s part of the online realm dominated by gravatars. But what is gravatar and how is it obtained? Today, we’re going to cover all the basics.

What is Gravatar?

Gravatar, a worldwide known avatar. The service was invented by Tom Preston-Werner in 2004. It was bought three years later by automaticThe company that owns WordPress.com, Tumblr and several other platforms.

The idea behind this service is pretty simple. Users can choose an avatar or upload their own after registering on Gravatar’s official website. And just like that, the same avatar will appear next to their username on all websites that support Gravatar. The more active they are on multiple platforms, the more recognizable they become on the World Wide Web. Even without looking at the username, people can tell the user by looking at their avatar.

Why Do You Need Gravatar?

When users are active on multiple online fronts, they may find it tiring to upload avatars for every website they are on. Even if they decide to use the same image everywhere, they need to make sure that the image complies with the size requirements on each platform. To avoid such difficulties, Gravatar comes to the rescue.

Having uniform avatars across all channels is especially important for brands, whatever their niche, and for anyone trying to do that in a business. Whatever the platform, people need to be able to instantly tell it’s you. If they can associate an image with you, they will find it easier to trust you, especially if you build a reputation for yourself on the web as someone who knows what they’re talking about..

How to get to Gravatar

To get Gravatar, all you have to do is go to the official website. – gravatar.com. Find Create Your Own Gravatar Select the option and click on it.

Now you can enter your WordPress.com credentials to log in. If you don’t have a WordPress.com account, you can easily do it. install one, it’s freeby entering the requested information as shown below:

It is important that the email address you use to register for Gravatar is the same email address you use to register on websites that support this service.. This will ensure that the same gravatar is displayed everywhere.

You will then receive a confirmation email.

Be sure to check your inbox for confirm registration. When you’re done with that, go back to gravatar.com and Edit your profile. To do this, click the profile icon on the right side of the screen.

You can upload an image you want to use as your avatar or go with the default Gravatar image.. The latter is not recommended as your avatar will look like this:

That doesn’t really help you stand out, does it? Choose a photo that you believe best represents you and upload it. The default display size for images is 80 x 80 pixels. You can also specify another size, up to 2048px, but if you choose larger sizes, your images may not look as sharp due to resolution issues other users may experience.

It’s also important to note that Gravatar has a rating system that lets you rate your avatar as G, PG, R or X. Gravatar follows the American movie rating system, where G stands for general audience and means the image is not disturbing; PG suggests that the content is possibly offensive and intended for audiences 13 and older. R means the image is for adults over 17 years old only and finally X means something obvious.

Besides adding your photo, here you can also enter additional details about yourselfsuch as your first and last name, your public display name, and a short bio. This is Gravatar Hovercard feature. To use it, a website must have JetPack plugin Established. Then users can read information about you when they hover over your avatar, so you may not want to leave this field blank. This could be what will solidify your status as a completely reliable source.

If you are already running a WordPress website, you may have noticed that your WordPress theme comes with integrated Gravatars. You can disable Gravatars completely or change the default Gravatar depending on your preferences. Everything can be edited at: Settings > Discussion section, but we will examine this in separate articles.

To summarize…

Gravatars are useful little things that give you better visibility, make it easier to be recognized on the web, increase your credibility, and also help differentiate users in a community. And creating a Gravatar account requires minimal effort on your part. In return, you can greatly benefit from it.

Gravatars will help you become a recognizable, reliable force on the Internet. The more active you are, the more people notice you. When they click on your Gravatar, they will be taken to your Gravatar profile. You can link the profile to your official website and increase its traffic. Also, you can share your Gravatar ID on all major social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Tumblr, etc. You can link to websites.

The benefits of owning a Gravatar are huge, so don’t wait any longer and create your account today.