If your organization, business, or community group promotes events on Facebook, you probably know the frustration of managing your events in two places: Facebook for social reach, and your WordPress website for your main online presence. Every time you create or update an event on Facebook, you have to manually duplicate it on WordPress.

The Import Facebook Events plugin by Xylus Themes solves this problem. It automatically imports your Facebook events to WordPress, keeping your website events calendar perfectly synced — without any manual copy-pasting.

Why Import Facebook Events to WordPress?

Eliminate Double Data Entry: Instead of creating events on both Facebook and WordPress separately, create them once on Facebook and let the plugin automatically populate your WordPress calendar.

Improve SEO: Facebook events are locked behind Facebook’s walled garden — search engines can’t properly index them. Importing to WordPress makes your events discoverable in Google Search.

Own Your Audience: Your WordPress website is your owned platform. Facebook can change its algorithm, reduce organic reach, or even restrict your page. Your website is always under your control.

Better Event Display: With WordPress, you can display events using your brand design, custom layouts, and advanced filtering — giving visitors a much better browsing experience than Facebook’s interface.

Schema Markup: Imported events can be paired with event schema markup (using the Event Schema plugin) for Google rich results — showing your events directly in search results with dates and locations.

Notifications and RSVP: Collect RSVPs and send email reminders directly from WordPress, building your own subscriber list rather than relying solely on Facebook notifications.

Prerequisites Before You Start

• A WordPress website (self-hosted wordpress.org — not wordpress.com).
• A Facebook Page (not just a personal profile) where you post events.
• A Facebook Developer account and App — needed to access Facebook’s Graph API.
• The Import Facebook Events plugin by Xylus Themes (free, available on WordPress.org).
• Administrator access to your WordPress dashboard.

📌 Note: The Facebook API requires app approval for certain data access levels. For importing your own page’s events, a basic developer app is sufficient. For importing events from third-party pages, you may need additional API permissions.

Step 1: Set Up a Facebook Developer App

Before installing the plugin, you need to create a Facebook App to get your API credentials:

1. Go to developers.facebook.com and log in with your Facebook account.
2. Click ‘My Apps’ in the top navigation, then click ‘Create App’.
3. Choose ‘Consumer’ as your app type and click ‘Next’.
4. Enter your App Name (e.g., ‘My WordPress Events Importer’) and your contact email.
5. Click ‘Create App’.
6. Once the app is created, go to Settings → Basic in the left sidebar.
7. Copy your App ID and App Secret — you’ll need these in the plugin settings.
8. Add your WordPress website URL to the ‘App Domains’ field.
9. Set your app to ‘Live’ mode (switch the toggle in the top bar from Development to Live).

💡 Tip: Keep your App Secret confidential. Never share it publicly or commit it to version control. It provides direct access to your Facebook app.

Step 2: Install the Import Facebook Events Plugin

10. Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard.
11. Go to Plugins → Add New Plugin.
12. Search for ‘Import Facebook Events’.
13. Find the plugin by Xylus Themes and click Install Now.
14. Click Activate to enable the plugin.
15. You’ll now see ‘FB Events Importer’ or ‘Import Events’ in your WordPress sidebar.

Step 3: Configure the Plugin with Your Facebook App Credentials

With the plugin installed and your Facebook App credentials ready, it’s time to connect them:

16. Navigate to Import Events → Settings (or the plugin’s settings page in your admin).
17. Enter your Facebook App ID in the ‘App ID’ field.
18. Enter your Facebook App Secret in the ‘App Secret’ field.
19. Click Save Settings.
20. The plugin will validate your credentials and show a success message if everything is correct.

Step 4: Import Facebook Events

Once configured, you can start importing events from your Facebook Page:

Import by Facebook Page URL

21. Go to Import Events → Import (or the import page within the plugin).
22. Select ‘Facebook Page’ as your import source.
23. Enter your Facebook Page URL or Page ID (found in your Page’s About section).
24. Choose the WordPress post type where events should be imported (often a custom ‘Events’ post type).
25. Select the post status: Published (events go live immediately) or Draft (review before publishing).
26. Set a date range if you want to limit which upcoming events to import.
27. Click Import Events.
28. The plugin will connect to Facebook’s API, fetch your events, and create WordPress posts for each one.

💡 Tip: Always import to ‘Draft’ status first for a batch import. This lets you review and edit the imported events before they appear publicly on your website.

What Gets Imported?

• Event title and description
• Event start and end date/time
• Event location (venue name and address if provided on Facebook)
• Event cover image (imported as WordPress featured image)
• Event URL/link back to Facebook event
• Organizer information

Step 5: Display Events on Your WordPress Website

Once events are imported, you need to display them on your site. The method depends on your theme and setup:

Using a Dedicated Events Page

Create a new WordPress page called ‘Events’ and use a shortcode provided by the plugin (or your events management plugin) to display all imported events with filtering and pagination.

Using The Events Calendar Plugin

If you’re using The Events Calendar plugin, the imported events automatically appear in your calendar views — month, list, and photo views.

Using a Custom Post Type Archive

If events are imported as a custom post type, WordPress automatically creates an archive URL (e.g., yourdomain.com/events/) that lists all events.

Using Gutenberg Blocks

Some event plugins provide Gutenberg blocks that you can add to any page to display upcoming events, a calendar widget, or featured events.

Automating Regular Imports

Manually triggering an import every time you add an event to Facebook defeats the purpose of automation. Set up automatic syncing so new Facebook events appear on your WordPress site without any manual action:

29. In the plugin settings, look for ‘Auto Import’ or ‘Scheduled Import’ options.
30. Enable automatic imports and set the frequency (hourly, twice daily, or daily works well for most sites).
31. WordPress uses WP-Cron to trigger these scheduled imports automatically.
32. Optionally set up email notifications to be alerted when new events are imported.

📌 Note: WP-Cron only fires when someone visits your WordPress site. For reliable scheduled imports on low-traffic sites, set up a real cron job via your hosting control panel to trigger wp-cron.php on schedule.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Issue: Events not importing — ‘Invalid App ID or Secret’

Solution: Double-check your App ID and App Secret are copied correctly with no extra spaces. Ensure your Facebook App is set to ‘Live’ mode, not ‘Development’.

Issue: Some event details are missing

Solution: Facebook’s API only returns the data that’s publicly visible and permitted by your app’s permissions. Ensure your Page events are set to ‘Public’ and your app has the necessary read permissions.

Issue: Events importing with wrong timezone

Solution: Facebook stores events in the local timezone of the event. Configure your WordPress timezone (Settings → General → Timezone) to match your primary events timezone.

Issue: Duplicate events appearing

Solution: This can happen if you run an import twice for the same date range. The plugin should check for existing events before creating duplicates. If duplicates appear, use WP Bulk Delete to remove the extras.

Issue: Cover images not importing

Solution: Your server needs permission to download images from Facebook’s CDN. Check that allow_url_fopen is enabled in your PHP configuration, or ask your hosting provider.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Import Facebook Events plugin free?

Yes, the core Import Facebook Events plugin by Xylus Themes is free and available on WordPress.org. It covers all the essential Facebook event importing functionality described in this guide.

Can I import events from other people’s Facebook Pages?

Importing from your own Facebook Page is straightforward. Importing events from third-party public Pages may require additional API permissions from Facebook. The process and availability depend on Facebook’s current API access policies.

Will importing Facebook events help my SEO?

Yes, significantly. Events imported to WordPress can be indexed by Google, shared via sitemap, and enhanced with event schema markup for rich results. Facebook events are not SEO-friendly — importing them to WordPress gives them a proper web presence.

What happens if I edit an event on Facebook after importing?

With automatic syncing enabled, event updates from Facebook should sync to WordPress on the next import cycle. The exact behavior depends on how the plugin handles existing events — some versions update in place, others create new entries.

Does the plugin support other event networks?

Xylus Themes also offers Import Meetup Events (for Meetup.com events) and plugins for other event platforms. These work similarly to the Facebook Events importer.

Conclusion

Importing Facebook events to WordPress is a smart strategy for anyone who manages events across multiple platforms. It saves time, improves your website’s content freshness, and — crucially — brings your events into a platform that’s actually indexed and discoverable in search engines.

The Import Facebook Events plugin by Xylus Themes makes this process seamless. Combined with event schema markup from the Event Schema plugin and a clean calendar display on your WordPress theme, you get a professional events presence that works both for your visitors and for search engines.

Boost Your Event Management with Xylus Themes

Explore our popular solutions designed to enhance your WordPress website’s functionality and streamline your workflow:

• Import Eventbrite Events: Effortlessly import all your global or local Eventbrite events directly to your site without any manual data entry.

• Import Meetup Events: If your community is active on Meetup.com, this plugin will help you automatically sync your networking events in real-time.

• WP Event Aggregator: A powerhouse solution that fetches events from multiple platforms (Facebook, Eventbrite, Meetup, iCal, etc.) and displays them in a single, beautiful calendar.

• Event Schema Plugin: The perfect tool to get your events featured in Google Search “Rich Snippets.” Increase your visibility and significantly boost your click-through rate (CTR).