Where is widgets in wordpress

In WordPress, widgets are snippets of content that live outside the flow of the page or post content. Widgets contain information, navigation or media that is separate from an individual post or page.

In most cases, each widget will be displayed on every page in the site, but you can also register widget areas for specific pages such as the home page. To add a widget to your site, you need to add it to a widget area. Widget areas are created by your theme because they relate to the design and layout of your site and not to functionality. Most WordPress themes have widget areas in the sidebar and footer, although some will have multiple widget areas in lots of places, such as below or above the content or in the header.

WordPress comes with a bunch of widgets preloaded so you can use them without having to install any plugins or write any code.

But you can also add lots more widgets by installing plugins or coding your own. These can cover a vast range of content types, such as media, social media feeds, navigation, search, maps and lots more. In fact, the biggest challenge is often choosing between all the options and not going overboard.

You should use a widget whenever you want to add extra content to one or more pages in your site and when I say page, I include posts, archives etc. Think about how many users will need access to each widget and how important it is when you decide where to place it. Widgets in the sidebar will be more prominent than those in the footer, which some users may not even see.

So a latest posts widget or a call to action widget might be better off in the sidebar where people have more chance of interacting with them, while a social media feed could go in the footer. The best way to understand the possibilities offered by WordPress widgets is by looking at some examples of them.

It lets you display a list of your most recent posts in the sidebar or footer of every page on your site, increasing the possibility that people will browse the site and read a number of posts.

The Recent Posts widget comes pre-installed with WordPress. It lets you set how many posts you want to show and what heading you want to give the widget. If you want to add extra functionality, you can install a plugin for an alternative widget like WordPress Popular Posts , which displays the most popular content. Alternatively, the Advanced Random Posts widget refreshes every time the user visits a new screen.

Want to show visitors how vibrant your site is and how much your audience is engaging with your content? The Recent Comments widget displays the latest comments on your site, giving visitors the opportunity to navigate straight to those comments and join in the discussion. The Recent Comments widget comes with WordPress.

Again, if you want to add extra functionality you can install a third-party comments plugin such as the WP Social Comments widget which lets people comment using their Facebook account: good for social media engagement. A great use of a widget is to encourage people to take action, and you can do this with a call to action widget. Your widget could be a simple button, or you could create something more bespoke using a text widget or HTML widget, or even an image widget, all of which come pre-installed with WordPress.

There are a few options for this: the Categories or Tag Cloud widgets and the Navigation Menu widget. The Navigation Menu widget lets you create an custom navigation menu as well as the main navigation menu in your site, and then add that to a widget area. You could even add your main navigation menu to a widget area, although this will only work if you have a small navigation menu. Adding a navigation menu to the footer of your site will encourage people reaching the end of a post to navigate around your site.

Alternatively, you can use the built-in Categories widget to display a list of the categories in your site, or the Tag Cloud widget to make it easy for people to access tag archives. Adding media to your sidebar or footer will bring your site to life and give users something to look at or interact with. You can use the built-in Image widget to display any image in your sidebar or footer, and it lets you turn that image into a link too. Alternatively, the Video widget lets you stream video from YouTube or Vimeo right into the widget area of your site.

One way to get access to social media widgets for the biggest platforms Facebook, Twitter, Instagram is to install the Jetpack plugin , which includes all of these and lots more.

Alternatively, all the social media platforms have their own plugins, available free via the plugin directory. Or you can find third party plugins that will let you customize the way you display your social media feed.

You could put this in the sidebar where people will easily be able to see it, or in the header for added visibility if your theme includes a widget area there. If you want people to contact you, ask questions or sign up to a mailing list , you could add a form to your sidebar. If your business is based in a physical location and you want people to be able to find you easily, adding a map widget to your site will help. The Login with Ajax widget gives you a login form in your widget meaning people can log into your site from any page.

A really simple but incredibly useful widget is the Search widget , which comes preloaded with WordPress. Add this to your sidebar or header and you make it easier for people to find things on your site. If you want to boost the power of your search widget, you can install the free WP Google Search widget, which uses Google search. The more there are, the less likely users are to notice them. Instead, focus on two or three key widgets for the sidebar. And if you have any extra widget areas in your theme , decide which widgets to put in those.

Make sure they fit with the layout and design of your site. There is a vast array of available widgets, so it can bed difficult to choose which one to install.

If one of the pre-installed widgets does what you need it to, then use that. It will save you time and mean less code running on your site. We hope this article helped you learn more about widgets. For more details, you can also read our article on how to add and use widgets in WordPress. If you liked this guide, then please consider subscribing to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials.

You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook. Trusted by over 1. All Rights Reserved. How to Add Widgets in WordPress When you first start a blog , setting up your widgets is an important step. You can also move widgets up and down to rearrange them. Think of it like the difference between apps and widgets on your smartphone.

I may end up having a widget per page! Thanks so much. Thank you. You create very good stuff for us beginners. A printer version of your articles would be very useful. Very timely post. I was about to make some instructional videos for my virtual assistant on how to maintain my site widgets. Using this post as a backgrounder should make that much easier. I have recommended to her to start followinging WPBeginner — I would not be surprised to see her develop more WP expertise than I have.

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You can also subscribe without commenting. All Rights Reserved. The most common widget areas are the footer and sidebar, but you may see others depending on the theme you are using:. To view the complete list of blocks you can add, click Browse all. You may use the search box at the top to find a block easily, or scroll down to browse all the blocks by category. After adding a block, click on it once and a toolbar will appear with several options specific to that block.

For even more options, click the … three dots to choose from:. If you added a widget to one area, but later decide to move it to a different area, follow these steps:. To remove a block you have added to a widget area, click on the block once and select the … three dots in the toolbar.

Then, click Remove Block :.