A website that takes more time than two or three seconds is considered slow. People don’t like to wait, but thankfully you can divert people’s attention by showing them preloader animation. You won’t have to work hard to add a preloader animation to WordPress site of yours.

In this post, I am going to show you how to add a preloader animation. All you have to do is follow the instructions and then you will be able to add your preloader animation by yourself.

What is a Preloader Animation?

A preloader animation is an attractive animation that shows up at the very beginning while all the elements of the website load in the background. The duration of the preloader animation may be short or long, depending on the website loading time. If a website is loaded very fast, then there is no need to keep the user’s attention for very long.

When to use a Preloader image?

A preloader will be a good option in cases when you have a video or image-heavy WordPress site and it takes some more time to load compared to usual. In this case, it will give a signal for your visitors that everything is alright with the site and it is not broken.

However, if your site is simple and mostly consists of text data, you might not need any kind of preloader animation. In this case, it would be more reasonable to pay attention to the improvement of page speed.

Table of Contents

Adding a Preloader Animation to WordPress

There are several preloader animation plugins is available in WordPress, but among those, Loftloader is popular and comes with many functionalities. I am showing the whole procedure with this plugin to add a preloader animation.

Step 1: Install the LoftLoader Plugin

First, install and activate the LoftLoader plugin from the WordPress plugins directory.

Step 2: Enable LoftLoader

Now navigate to Settings -> LoftLoader lite.

Make sure you have enabled LoftLoader by placing a tick mark on the Enable option.

Step 3: Set Loader Animation

Click on Loader and select the loader animation you like.

You can also change color from the ‘pick color’ option. If you like, you can also choose your custom image as the loader animation. Just click on the ‘image animation’ and upload your image by clicking on the ‘Change image’ button.

After that, you will be able to adjust the width of the image.

Step 4: Customize

There are some additional settings available for your preloader animation. Click on the ‘Display on’ option after opening the plugin settings.

You can either show the preloader animation on the Homepage only or sitewide.

You can also change the background color, opacity, and Ending animation from the ‘Background’ option. If you want some additional settings, you can access them from the ‘More’ option. From here, you will be able to set the maximum load time, close button, and whether to delete plugin data upon deactivation.

Finally, when you are done customizing your preloader animation, hit the publish button and see your preloader in action.

Best Preloader Plugins

If you wish you can also use any other plugins rather then Loftloader. Here I am providing you with a list that comes with short details of these plugins.

WP Smart PreLoader:
WP Smart Preloader brings a rather easygoing approach to adding a preloader to your website. It is designed to be simple and user-oriented. It boasts a set of loader animations easily enabled with a few clicks, from rotating circles to basic progress bars. This plugin provides the ability to add loaders seamlessly on all pages with options to customize colors and animations as per the style of your brand.
Preloader:
Preloader Plus is a lightweight but extremely user-friendly plugin. It supports several animation styles: spinner, bounce, and fade effects, and any of them can be configured by modifying colors and size. You can also set a preloader to show up for some particular pages or particular user roles. It is designed to be compatible with major WordPress themes and page builders for conflict-free integration.
Preloader for Website:
Preloader for Website is a catching, versatile plugin that will allow adding different types of preloader animations to your WordPress website. This plugin is lightweight and contains a number of preloader animations, along with styles that work perfectly with most WordPress themes.
You can set up the colors, animations, and durations for it; thus, it opens up your option to create consistency in branding. Yet on top of that, it is also friendly to the user: the settings are super intuitive and will have your preloader up in no time, which is why many people would want to use this plugin since it offers simplicity without sacrificing visual appeal.

Last Words

Hope you successfully added a preloader animation in WordPress site of yours. If you have any difficulties to add a preloader animation, feel free to ask. I will be happy to help you. If you liked the post, share it with your friends, and don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comment box below.

Changelog

Updated on 2024-10-28 (Uzzal Raz Bongshi)
- Added ‘When to use a Preloader image?’.
- Added ‘Best Preloader Plugins’.
- Updated images.
- Updated post details.