Widgets are a very important tool in WordPress. Knowing how to use them can make your site more interesting, In this article, I will show you what are widgets and how to properly use them on your blog. This WordPress tutorial is for old widgets. Install and activate the plugin classic widgets to restore the old widgets in WP.
Widgets can be added anywhere on your site’s pages, but this depends on the WordPress theme you are using, or rather on the number of registered sidebars. There are free themes that don’t support widgets at all.
What is WordPress Widgets
Widgets are small, movable blocks of code that can be placed on any page of your WordPress site to add content and additional features to attract site visitors. Widgets are one of the best features of WordPress, as they are one of the easiest ways to add functional elements to your site without any experience with code.
Knowledge of widgets is essential because they play an important role in designing the layout of your site and displaying content other than the main article. By following this guide, you will gain the ability to use widgets and use them on any WordPress site.
Widgets are a must-have for any WordPress user, as they give you an easy way to manage the design and structure of your site, while at the same time providing an easy way to add elements to the footer or sidebar of the site. They allow users of any level to add advanced features to their pages without individual configuration. All of these widgets are compatible and optimized for WordPress.
You can easily manage the location of your widgets and add them to the sidebars and footer allowed in your WordPress theme, in any order. Widget-ready WordPress themes include a header and footer, as well as other WordPress design and structure elements. You can install additional widgets from plugins and themes, and there are many different types of them available.
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Managing widgets
The beauty of widgets is the simplicity of the widget’s user interface. You can add a widget to any location on your page by simply dragging them in the order you want.
By default, WordPress comes with many useful widgets. To view them, log in to your admin panel and go to “Appearance-Widgets”. This page contains available widgets on the left side.
To start using widgets, the first thing you need to do is activate the widget on your site. I would recommend that you familiarize yourself with the sections on the widgets page in advance, which is displayed as follows:
- The “Available Widgets” section displays widgets supported by your theme. These widgets haven’t been added to your site yet, but they are available for use. Under the name of each widget, there is a brief description of the content that it displays. Click on a widget to display the sidebars that you can add this widget to, and drag them to the widget area to use them.
- The widget area is a list of widgets that are currently displayed on your site.
- To the right of the page, there are designated areas on your WordPress site where you can place these widgets.
- Click on inactive widgets in the lower-right corner of the page. This section contains widgets that you removed from the sidebar sections but retains the settings you selected if you choose to use them again. If you have changed the theme and some widgets appear to be missing, open the Inactive Widgets area to find the missing widgets along with your saved settings.
- Your main sidebar is the main sidebar that appears on the left side of your site template. Click on a sidebar to display widgets that have already been added to that sidebar in the admin area. The easiest way to understand how widgets work is to compare widgets displayed in the sidebar of your site and widgets added in the same sidebar in the admin area.
- The content sidebar tab displays an additional sidebar located on the right side or next to the content displayed on your pages. It’s empty by default. You can add various widgets, such as a calendar, to display it on your pages.
- Now select the footer widget area. This section is intended for widgets that appear in the basement of your site. Again, this area will be empty by default. You can add features such as the “Archive” and “Meta” widgets that will appear in the footer of your site.
Widget areas in WordPress
Get familiar with the widget areas in your theme and optimize the widget sidebars to better fit your site’s needs. You can make custom sidebar configurations using plugins. For example, Custom sidebars is a flexible widget area manager that manages sidebars and other widget areas on your site and replaces them. This allows you to dynamically display custom widget configurations on any page or post. There are many customization options, you can even create a floating sidebar widget.
Basic WordPress Widgets
Once you understand what widgets are, you’ll probably need more of them for your site. As I mentioned earlier, WordPress doesn’t come pre-installed with many widget options. The good news is that there are many free and premium WordPress widgets available using plugins. The options can be overwhelming for beginners. For this reason, I have compiled a list of the main widgets that are useful for all WordPress sites.
Page Widget
WordPress comes with a page widget that adequately displays your pages in the sidebar, making it easier for your readers to navigate. In addition, the “WP Page Widget” can be easily changed. With “WP Page” you can select the widgets you want to show. You can include or exclude pages and posts, or custom post types.
Category Widget
WordPress comes with the main categories widget that shows all the latest posts from the selected category. For advanced features, I recommend the “Category Posts Widget”. It displays categories elegantly, is free, and is very popular with WordPress users. The premium version includes attractive additions from vertical and horizontal sliders, categories, custom post types, taxonomies, events, products, responsive grid layouts, and more.
Calendar
The pre-installed “WordPress Calendar” widget is a simple calendar that displays links to your posts by date. It’s quite simple. For example, you can’t create or display calendar events or anything like that. There are many calendars with more features, such as “Simple Calendar”, the “Google Calendar” widget, and plugins that display more complex ones, such as booking and ticket processing systems such as “Booking Calendar”.
Social Media Widget
Social media widgets allow your visitors to connect with you through your favourite networks, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google. Use the “Social Icons Plus” widget to display buttons associated with your social media accounts in any widget area of your theme.
RSS Widget
RSS widgets provide the perfect way to integrate external content into your site. The “WP RSS Aggregator” widget allows you to integrate an external feed for recently published content from any source into the widget area of your site. Add from any RSS feed, such as your Twitter account, Facebook posts, Google+ posts, or other blogs. This feature is especially useful if you want to draw attention to these sources in the sidebar. This widget can display the message title, limited tweet characters, or a link to the original source.
Footer widget
The basement area is a key component of the site that is usually not considered important. On the contrary, a good footer area includes useful information about the site. You can specify terms of service, shipping costs, a site map, contact details, and even banner ads, adding valuable data to connect with your visitors. Basement widgets are used to customize the site’s presence or make it more useful. Using footer gadgets, such as the “Add Inserter Plugin”, saves you time to complete additional components.
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