Ever feel like your website’s reading time estimations are a bit…off? Or perhaps the progress bar just doesn’t quite match your site’s aesthetic? You’re not alone. Many WordPress users find the default settings of plugins like Read Meter – Reading Time & Progress Bar helpful but ultimately limiting. This article will walk you through how to break free from those constraints and tailor this tool to perfectly fit your needs, all with the power of AI. We’ll show you how to make it truly yours.

What is Read Meter – Reading Time & Progress Bar?

Read Meter – Reading Time & Progress Bar is a handy WordPress plugin designed to enhance the reading experience on your website. At its core, it provides an estimated reading time for each blog post and displays a progress bar as visitors scroll, giving them a visual cue of how far along they are. It’s a simple way to increase engagement and keep readers on your page longer.

The plugin’s primary function is to automatically calculate and display the estimated reading time of your posts, based on word count and an average reading speed. It also offers a customizable progress bar that dynamically updates as the user scrolls down the page, visually indicating their progress through the content. This can be especially helpful for longer articles. It has earned a rating of 4.5/5 stars based on 19 reviews and boasts over 10,000 active installations, showing it’s a popular choice among WordPress users.

For more information about the plugin, visit the official plugin page on WordPress.org.

Why Customize it?

While the default settings of the plugin are a good starting point, they often don’t perfectly align with every website’s unique needs and design. The generic look and feel might not match your branding, or the default reading speed calculation could be inaccurate for your specific audience. This is where customization becomes essential.

Customization allows you to tailor the tool to precisely fit your website’s aesthetic and functionality. Imagine changing the progress bar color to match your brand’s primary hue, or adjusting the reading speed calculation to better reflect your audience’s reading habits. These small tweaks can make a big difference in user experience and engagement.

For example, a website focused on technical documentation might need to adjust the reading speed calculation to account for code snippets and complex diagrams, while a site catering to children might want a more playful progress bar design. Customization ensures that the plugin seamlessly integrates with your website’s overall design and provides the most accurate and engaging experience for your visitors. Without customization you leave engagement, branding and accuracy on the table.

Common Customization Scenarios

Extending Core Functionality

Sometimes, the basic features of a plugin aren’t enough. You might need to add extra functionality that caters to your specific requirements. This is where extending core functionality comes in.

Through customization, you can enhance the existing features of the plugin to better suit your website’s needs. Imagine adding a feature that tracks the average reading time for each user, or integrating with a social media platform to allow users to share their reading progress. You could even add a feature that adjusts the reading time estimate based on the user’s screen size or device type. AI can help you implement these kinds of enhancements much faster, suggesting relevant code snippets and guiding you through the process.

For example, a learning platform could integrate the plugin with its course management system to track student reading progress and award badges for completing articles. With AI, the code for this integration can be generated, tested, and deployed faster.

Integrating with Third-Party Services

Modern websites rarely exist in isolation. Integrating with other services is often necessary to streamline workflows and enhance user experience.

By customizing this tool, you can connect it with various third-party services, such as analytics platforms, email marketing tools, and social media networks. This allows you to gather valuable data about user reading habits, automate marketing campaigns based on reading progress, and enable users to easily share their progress on social media. Imagine integrating with Google Analytics to track which articles are most engaging, or connecting with Mailchimp to send personalized emails to users who have completed a certain number of articles. AI can make these integrations smoother by automatically generating the necessary API calls and data mappings.

Consider a news website integrating the system with its paywall system. The reading progress could trigger offers for subscription services when the user has read a defined number of articles. AI simplifies the API connections required for this process.

Creating Custom Workflows

Every website has its unique workflow. Customizing this tool allows you to tailor it to fit seamlessly into your existing processes.

You can create custom workflows that automate tasks, streamline content creation, and improve overall efficiency. For example, you could create a workflow that automatically updates the reading time estimate whenever a post is edited, or triggers a notification when an article has been read by a certain number of users. AI can help you design and implement these workflows by suggesting optimal configurations and generating the necessary code to automate tasks. This improves efficiency dramatically.

For example, an internal knowledge base can use the system to automatically categorize content. Reading time acts as an indication of document length and depth. AI could then generate categories appropriate for the document.

Building Admin Interface Enhancements

The WordPress admin interface can sometimes feel limiting. Customizing this plugin opens up opportunities to enhance the admin experience.

You can build custom admin interfaces that provide more control over the plugin’s settings, display detailed analytics, and allow you to manage user reading progress. Imagine creating a dashboard that shows the average reading time for each author, or allows you to manually adjust the reading time estimate for individual posts. AI can simplify the development of these interfaces by generating the necessary HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code. Making it easier for non-developers.

Imagine a multi-author blog. A custom admin interface might allow administrators to track reading time of articles by specific authors. AI can create the required reporting.

Adding API Endpoints

For more advanced integrations and custom applications, adding API endpoints to the plugin can be incredibly powerful.

By adding API endpoints, you can allow other applications to interact with the plugin, retrieve data, and trigger actions. This opens up a wide range of possibilities, such as building custom mobile apps that display user reading progress, or integrating with other WordPress plugins to create more complex functionality. For instance, you might want to create an API endpoint that allows you to retrieve the reading time estimate for a specific post, or update the reading time estimate based on external data. AI can help you design and implement these API endpoints by generating the necessary code and handling authentication and security considerations.

A website could allow its members to track their reading history and progress via an API. AI significantly lowers the barrier to building and maintaining this API.