How To Make WordPress Posts Sticky

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

With a sticky forum post, the entry does not get replaced by more recent entries while older threads display lower down the page.

Like online forums, WordPress also lets you ‘pin’ important posts to the top of your blog post page and your newer items get added below the featured entry and older posts get pushed further down the page.

In this tutorial, you are going to learn how to create a sticky post.

Before going through this tutorial, make sure to familiarize yourself with basic WordPress features like:

• The difference between WordPress Posts and Pages
• How to create new WordPress blog posts
• Editing WordPress posts
• Using the WordPress Quick Edit feature
• How to create a WordPress blog page
• How to specify the number of blog posts to show on the blog page

Featured Posts

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

(Latest posts get added to the top of your blog posts summary page and older posts get pushed further down the page)

Depending on how many posts you have configured your site to display on your blog page, when new posts are published, older posts will display down the page.

You can set your posts as Sticky if you would like your readers to view these before other posts. Sticky posts will stay pinned above your regular posts until you uncheck the ‘Sticky’ option on the Edit screen for that particular post.

Here is how to make any WordPress post sticky:

Go to your Dashboard and select Posts > All Posts …

(Posts Menu – All Posts)

The Posts screen will appear, displaying all your posts …

(Table Of Posts)

Once you get to this screen, you have two ways of making WordPress posts sticky. Let’s take a look at each of these methods:

Making A Post Sticky - Quick Edit Method

Search for the item you want to edit, then hover your mouse over the title to display the options menu and click on Quick Edit …

(Click on ‘Quick Edit’)

The Quick Edit inline editor expands and displays the options for editing your post. Find the ‘Make this post sticky’ option …

(Quick Edit options – ‘Make this post sticky’)

Select the ’Make this post sticky’ check box …

(’Make this post sticky’ option – Quick Edit section)

Update your settings …

(Click ‘Update’ to save your settings)

How To Make Posts Sticky - Post Edit Method

If you are adding a new blog post or editing content in an existing item, you can make your post sticky by clicking on Publish > Visibility: Public > Edit …

(Publishing section – Visibility > Edit)

Select the checkbox next to ‘Stick this post to the front page’, click OK, and update your new changes …

(Publishing section)

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

(Sticky post)

Your sticky post will be featured at the top of your blog post page when new posts get added …

(Sticky posts are listed at the top of your blog summary page and other items get pushed further down the page)

Depending on the theme you have installed, your sticky posts may also stand out from normal blog posts.

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

(Sticky posts can stand out from other posts)

Here’s the same example with a different WordPress theme installed …

(Featured posts can stand out from other posts)

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

How To Unstick Blog Post Items

Unsticking a WordPress post is easy.

To unstick a post, go back to to your Table of Posts and select the ‘Sticky’ link on the Posts menu to return all post entries listed as sticky …

(Posts section – Display sticky posts)

Click on the ‘Quick Edit’ link …

(Click on the ‘Quick Edit’ link)

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

(Untick the box to unstick your post)

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

(Publish post box – Visibility settings)

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

(Post publishing section)

Your post is no longer sticky and will behave like all regular posts.

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

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