How To Make WordPress Posts Sticky

If you frequent an online forum, then you are probably already familiar with the concept of a featured topic.

A featured or sticky post is where a selected entry does not get replaced by more recent entries while older threads display down the screen.

Like online forums, WordPress also lets you ’stick’ important posts to the top of your blog post page while your newer entries appear below the featured item and older items get pushed down the page.

In this tutorial, we show you how to make any WordPress post on your site sticky.

To benefit the most from this tutorial, you should already be familiar with basic WordPress features like:

• The difference between WordPress Posts vs Pages
• Creating new blog posts in WordPress
• Editing posts in WordPress
• How to use the WordPress Quick Edit function
• Setting up a WordPress blog page
• How to set the number of posts to display on your blog page

How To Make Posts Sticky

In WordPress, blog posts appear in reverse chronological order on your blog page with the newest posts shown at the top …

(Newer posts display at the top of your blog page while older entries get pushed down the page)

Depending on how many posts you have set up your site’s settings to display on your blog page, latest posts appear at the top of the blog posts summary page while older posts get pushed further down the page.

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

To make a WordPress post sticky, do this:

Log into your WordPress dashboard, then go to the admin navigation menu and click on select Posts > All Posts …

(Posts – All Posts)

The Posts screen will appear, displaying all the posts you have created …

(Table Of Posts)

Once you get to this screen, there are a couple of methods to make your blog post sticky. Let’s take a look at each method:

Featured Posts - Quick Edit Method

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

(Click on the ‘Quick Edit’ link)

The Quick Edit inline editor displays all of the options for editing your post. Locate the ‘Make this post sticky’ option …

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

Tick Make this post sticky …

(’Make post sticky’ checkbox – Quick Edit screen)

Update your settings …

(Quick Edit – ’Update’ button)

Making WordPress Posts Sticky - Post Edit Method

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

(Publish post section – Visibility settings)

Check ‘Stick this post to the front page’, click OK, and update your new settings …

(Publish post section)

The Table of Posts will change your post to “Sticky” …

(’Sticky’ post status)

Visitors will see your sticky post at the top of the page, followed by other recent posts …

(Sticky posts are added to the top of the blog page and your regular entries get pushed further down the page)

Depending on your WordPress theme, your sticky post could also display to visitors differently than your other posts.

For example, your sticky post can have a distinctive label and highlight color …

(Sticky posts can display differently than regular posts)

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

(Sticky posts can display differently than regular posts)

Your blog post will stay sticky for as long as you like.

Unsticking Your Posts

Unsticking a post is really easy.

To unstick a post, return to the Table of Posts in your WP admin area and select the ‘Sticky’ link on the Posts menu to return all posts with a sticky status …

(Sticky menu – Posts section)

Hover your mouse over the title to view the options menu and click on Quick Edit …

(Click on the ‘Quick Edit’ link)

Uncheck ’Make this post sticky’ and click the ‘Update’ button …

(Untick the box to unstick the post)

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

(Post publish box – Visibility > Edit)

Deselect ‘Stick this post to the front page’ then click OK and remember to click Update to save your settings …

(Post publish box)

Your post will now behave like all of your other posts.

Congratulations, now you know how to make your posts sticky.

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