How To Make WordPress Posts Sticky

If you frequent an online discussion board, then you are probably already familiar with the concept of a ”sticky” or featured post.

A sticky topic is where a specific entry does not get displaced by more recent entries while older threads appear further down the page.

Like forums, WordPress allows you to ’fix’ important posts to the top of your blog post page while the newer blog posts display below the featured entry and older posts get pushed down your page.

In this tutorial, we explain how to create a sticky post in WordPress.

You will really benefit from this tutorial if you already have a good understanding of basic WordPress features like:

• Knowing the difference between WordPress Posts vs Pages
• How to create blog posts in WordPress
• Editing a post in WordPress
• How to use the WordPress Quick Edit function
• How to create a post page in WordPress
• How to specify the number of blog posts to display on the blog page

Making Posts Sticky

In WordPress, posts normally appear at the top of your blog post page in reverse chronological order …

(Latest posts get listed at the top of your blog page while older items get pushed down the page)

Depending on how many posts your site’s settings is set up to display on your blog page, when new posts are published, older posts will get pushed down the page.

In WordPress, you can set your posts as Sticky if you would like your readers to view these before all other posts. Sticky posts will stay pinned at the top of your blog post page until you uncheck the ‘Sticky’ option on the Edit screen for that particular post.

To make any post sticky, follow the steps below:

Go to your administration section and choose Posts > All Posts …

(WordPress Posts Menu – All Posts)

The Posts screen will appear, displaying all your posts …

(Posts Table)

You have a couple of methods of making WordPress posts sticky:

Featured Posts - Quick Edit Method

Find the item you would like to edit, hover your mouse over the post title to view the options menu and click on Quick Edit …

(Click on ‘Quick Edit’)

The inline editor expands to display all of your post editing options. Find the ‘Make this post sticky’ option …

(’Make this post sticky’ checkbox – Inline editor section)

Tick Make this post sticky …

(’Make post sticky’ checkbox – Inline editor screen)

Update your settings …

(Quick Edit – ’Update’ button)

Featured Posts - Post Edit Method

If you are adding a new post or editing your post content, you can make the post sticky by going to Publish > Visibility: Public > Edit …

(Post publishing section – Visibility > Edit)

Tick the checkbox next to ‘Stick this post to the front page’, click OK, and click Update to save your new changes …

(Publishing section)

Your Table of Posts now shows your blog post status as “Sticky” …

(Post status: Sticky)

Your featured post will stick to the top of your blog post page even as new posts are added …

(Sticky posts get added to the top of the blog posts summary page while other entries get pushed further down)

Depending on your WordPress theme, your sticky posts may also display differently than your other posts.

For example, your sticky post can have a distinct label or highlight color …

(Featured posts can appear differently from regular posts)

Here’s the same sticky post with another WordPress theme installed …

(Sticky posts can stand out from regular posts)

Your blog post will now remain sticky for as long as you want.

How To Unstick A Blog Post

Unsticking posts in WordPress is as simple as reversing the process.

To unstick a post, return to the Posts > All Posts and click on the ‘Sticky’ link at the top of the post entries to return all posts assigned a sticky status …

(Sticky posts menu – Table of Posts)

Click on Quick Edit …

(Click on ‘Quick Edit’)

Untick the ‘Make this post sticky’ checkbox and click the ‘Update’ button to save your new settings …

(Uncheck the box to unstick the post inside Quick Edit)

Alternatively, if you are editing an existing post, you can unstick your post by clicking on Publish > Visibility: Public > Edit …

(Publish post section – Visibility settings)

Click the checkbox next to ‘Stick this post to the front page’ then click OK and remember to update your new settings …

(Post publishing box)

Your post will now behave like every other regular post.

Congratulations, now you know how to make posts sticky.

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