As we discuss in this article, one of the many benefits of using the WordPress CMS platform is that you can easily add content, enhance your website, and reorganize the layout of your site without having web coding skills and knowledge.
WordPress allows you to quickly and easily insert, delete, and manage various blocks of content from your blog’s sidebar (and header and footer sections too, depending on what theme you are using) using widgets.
Once you know how to use widgets, you can easily add things to your site’s sidebar area (plus headers and footers and other areas, depending on the WordPress theme you have installed) like:
- site pages
- blog categories
- archived published posts
- customized menus
- links to resources
- most read posts
- recent comments
- clickable ads
- testimonials
- surveys & polls
- RSS feed items
- subscriber form
- videos
- twitter feeds
- add widgets from external sites (e.g. Facebook)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WordPress widgets make managing and using WordPress easy)
To learn more about what WP widgets are, how they work and how using widgets can help you expand the functionality of your website, go here:
In this tutorial series we explain how to use and configure a number of commonly-used widgets in WordPress.
Using WordPress Widgets
Basic Concepts
Before we start learning how to configure widgets, it helps to first review some of the basics about using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Layouts
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide areas in your theme’s layout where widgets can be used, such as the sidebar navigation area, header area, and footer. Depending on what theme you are using, widgets can also be used below or above the content area …
(Many WP themes provide multiple widget-ready areas)
These widget-ready sections correspond to a feature inside your Widget panel called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Panel
The Widgets area displays a list of all the widgets that are currently available for use on your site.
On the right-hand side of the window, you can see all “active” widgets …
(Activate or deactivate widgets with drag & drop ease)
Available widgets can be made Active or Inactive using drag & drop.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like the sidebar, footer, etc. immediately become activated for use on your site.
The Widgets area also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove any widgets that you no longer want to actively display on your website. Inactive widgets do not lose their pre-configured settings.
Rearrange Widgets Using Drag-And-Drop
You can easily insert, activate, deactivate, rearrange and delete widgets by dragging and dropping items inside your Widgets section …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag-and-drop)
You can also easily reorder the order of your site’s widget-ready sections by dragging and dropping widgets.
For example, take a look at the image below. In this example site, the widgets have already been configured to show the following:
- A newsletter opt-in form,
- A contact support banner, and
- A ‘click to call’ feature from a widgetized WordPress plugin (i.e. a plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control the order certain features appear on your WordPress site)
If we were to peek inside the Widget area, you would see that the front end features display on the site in the same order as their corresponding widgets have been arranged in the back-end widget area …
If we reorganize the above widgets in the Widget Area by dragging and dropping items …
(Drag & drop widgets in the widget area to rearrange their order)
The widget features have now been reorganized in your sidebar navigation section …
This instantly reorganizes the order of items in the site’s sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar layout using widgets can help to improve visitor experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now the first item on the sidebar area, and the ‘contact us’ graphic banner (2) has been moved to the spot above the newsletter sign-up form (1) …
(Rearrange sidebar elements using widgets to improve your site’s visitor experience)
Deleting Widgets From The WordPress Sidebar Navigation Menu
Deleting widgets from your sidebar navigation menu is really easy.
For example, let’s show you how to remove the Search widget from your sidebar section …
(WordPress Search widget)
To delete a widget from an active Widget area, you can either expand the widget and click the Delete link …
(How to delete WordPress widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and into the Inactive Widgets area …
(How to remove a WP widget)
Repeat this process for all widgets you want removed from your sidebar area. You can always restore widgets by moving them back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Most widgets can be customized further. This can include things like making certain types of information hidden to your site visitors but visible to registered users, displaying additional forms, fields, or data, specifying sizes of sidebar images, videos, etc.
Clicking on the little triangle in the corner of a widget expands the item and displays the settings for the widget …
(Toggling expands/collapse widget settings)
When the widget expands, you can change and save your settings, delete the widget from the “Active Widgets” section, close the widget, or click on the triangle to collapse the widget …
(Widget settings)
Some widgets offer little to no customization, or they may only allow you to add something like an optional title …
(Some widgets give you little to no configuration options)
Previewing Your Widgets
Depending on which WP theme you have installed on your site, you’re also able to preview any changes live without making actual changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like your customizations before committing anything live to your site.
The ability to manage widgets from within your own WP dashboard is a great feature of WordPress. You can work in preview mode inside the WordPress Theme Customizer screen (Appearance > Customize) and see how the widget content will appear prior to publishing changes (to avoid making mistakes), or change your widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(Edit widgets in the Customize feature)
If you need to make changes to your site while viewing the front-end, just click on the Customize link …
(Customize link in the toolbar)
This brings you to the Customizer feature in the back-end.
You can do lots of things to the widgets in preview mode (like inserting, deleting and moving widgets around), and see all changes in real time. If you are happy with what you’ve done, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will instantly become visible on your site to visitors.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
After saving the changes, the new settings will automatically be displayed on your site.
Because the WordPress theme you choose tend to affect how elements display on your site, we recommend installing your theme first before configuring widgets on your sidebar.
Also, remember to use the Customizer feature to preview your changes. This will save you from having to keep two browsers open while you work through this tutorial (one to work in and one to see your site the way your visitors will see it).
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, let’s configure a number of frequently-used WordPress sidebar widgets.
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This is the end of part 1 of this tutorial.
Click here to read the rest of this tutorial series:
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