WordPress allows you to customize your site layout through widgets easily. Many WordPress plugins and themes will enable you to add widgets such as popular posts, calendars, email subscriptions, etc. In this article, we have handpicked the best WordPress widgets for your site sidebar.
Best WordPress Widgets For Sidebar
The sidebar is an integral part of a WordPress blog. But a lot of bloggers ignore it. When I started blogging, I used to add many widgets to the sidebar. It seemed cool to me. But I was not getting the results that I wanted from the sidebar. That’s because I was not using the proper widgets.
Useful widgets can help you to make your sidebar work for you. But the problem is that it’s not easy to find the right widgets from thousands of WordPress widgets. I will share a list of different types of widgets for the WordPress sidebar to make things easier. This list will help you to find and add the right widgets to your WordPress blog.
Before going further, I’d recommend you check your existing widgets. Because WordPress Installation comes with some default widgets. And if you are using a premium theme, it might add some widgets too. Before adding a new widget, you should check if there is the same kind of widget. Just go to WordPress Admin Panel > Appearance > Widgets.
Now let’s see the must-have widgets for your WordPress Blog.
1. Email Subscription Widget
The Sidebar is one of the best places to add an opt-in form. It converts well. And it gives a professional look to the blog as most pro bloggers use it. Whether offering freebies or just asking your readers to subscribe, you should add an opt-in form in the sidebar. Here are some plugins to add an opt-in form in the sidebar.
- Popup Maker for opt-ins, lead gen, & more to generate conversion-focused campaigns to grow your revenue and email list on your WordPress site with popups, slide-ins, banners, and more!
- OptinMonster: This is another popular plugin for list building. It is created by the famous blogger Syed Balkhi.
- WP Subscribe: It’s a free plugin created by MyThemeShop. It’s a good choice when you don’t offer freebies.
2. Social Media Widget
Social Media is the best way to connect with your readers. Having social media widget in the sidebar means your visitors are just one click away from connecting with you. However, there are several social networking sites. You need to figure out which networks suit your blog. You can add a single network or a bunch of networks widget in the sidebar.
- Firstly, Easy Social Share Buttons For WordPress: It’s a social sharing plugin with many features. It has a sidebar widget to show follower counters.
- Secondly, Monarch Social Sharing Plugin: It’s mainly a social sharing plugin. But it allows you to add social media widget to the sidebar. It’s a complete solution for social media.
- SocialBox – Social Profile Showcase: SocialBox enables you to showcase your social media profiles on the sidebar in an attractive way. It supports several social networks with YouTube and Vimeo channel subscriptions.
- Social Media Widget: It’s a free plugin that adds links to all of your social media profiles on your sidebar. It offers tons of icons for different sizes and styles.
- Social Widget: As the name suggests, it displays Metro Style Social network icons in the sidebar. It’s a good solution when you add a few profiles.
- YouTube Channel: It shows a YouTube video and a gallery of thumbnails for a YouTube channel.
- Facebook Like Box Widget: Learn how to add Facebook Like Box widget to WordPress manually.
- Finally, Instagram Slider Widget: Use this plugin to show your latest Instagram images on the sidebar.
3. Posts Widget (Recent/Popular)
You can showcase your recent or popular posts on the sidebar. This way, visitors can easily find your best or recently published posts. By default, WordPress has a widget for recent posts. However, some plugins allow you to show posts with thumbnails or posts arranged by tabs.
- WordPress Popular Posts: It’s a highly customizable widget that lets you display the most popular posts on the sidebar,
- Secondly, the Recent Post Widget by Borderless WordPress plugin allows you to show recent posts with thumbnails. Visualmodo Theme creates it.
- WP Tab Widget It’s a fantastic widget that lets you display posts arranged by tabs. You can also show tags or categories. It offers 21 predefined layouts, 29 new pagination styles, and 6 unique AJAX loaders.
4. Author Widget
Visitors always want to know who’s behind the blog. That’s why the About page is one of the most visited pages of your blog. We add the Author bio box to the blog posts or footer. But it gets more attention when you add it to the sidebar. While you can add Author Bio by using the text editor, you can consider using a plugin to make the box more attractive.
- Firstly, Fanciest Author Box: This is WordPress’s most famous Author Box plugin. It offers a widget that allows you to add an Author box on the sidebar. You can also show your social profiles on different tabs.
- WP – Author Box: It’s another excellent plugin for Author Box. It offers 6 predefined skins.
Sidebar Widget by Fanciest Author Box.
5. Best Login WordPress Sidebar
If running a multi-author WordPress site, you should add a Login widget on the sidebar to make login easier for your authors. Some special WordPress plugins allow you to add a simple and attractive Login/Registration Form in the sidebar.
- Login Widget With Shortcode: It’s a simple plugin that allows users to log in to the side from the front.
- Social Login: This plugin allows visitors to log in to social networks like Facebook, Twitter, PayPal, LinkedIn, Google, etc.
- Nextend Social Login is a professional, easy-to-use, and free WordPress plugin. It allows visitors to register and log in to your website using their social profiles (Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc.) instead of forcing them to spend valuable time filling out standard registration forms. Plus, they no longer have to wait for confirmation emails or keep track of their usernames and passwords. Nextend Social Login integrates seamlessly with your existing WordPress login and registration forms. Existing users can add or delete their social accounts on their WordPress profile page. Individual users can attach as many social accounts as they want so that they can log into Facebook, Google, or Twitter.
6. Best Search WordPress Sidebar Widgets
Adding a Search widget depends on the number of posts you have on your blog. There is no reason to add a search box widget to a new blog. It will disappoint the visitors who search. If you have a decent amount of blog posts on your blog, you can consider adding a search box. WordPress has a default widget for a search box. But it doesn’t show an accurate result. Here are some alternatives you can try.
- Google Search Box: It shows more relevant results than the default search. And it does not have any impact on server resources.
- SearchWP: It’s a premium plugin that shows more relevant results than the default WordPress Search.
- Relevanssi – A Better Search: This plugin replaces the default search with a better search that shows relevant results.
7. Testimonial WordPress Widget
One of the easiest ways to increase the credibility of your blog is to add testimonials. Having testimonials is a must when you are offering services/products. It will increase your conversion rates. You can easily add testimonials by using a text widget. But if you want more functionalities like collecting testimonials, you need to use a plugin.
- Testimonial Widgets: It lets you show testimonials on the sidebar randomly or selectively. You can insert testimonials via shortcode or widget.
- Easy Testimonials: It’s an easy-to-use plugin for adding testimonials to your WordPress sidebar.
- Testimonials WordPress Plugin: It’s a premium plugin for showing testimonials. It offers responsive layouts, group testimonials by category, shortcode/widget, several style options, etc.
8. Ratings/Poll Widget
Rating-Widget is a must-have widget for product/review-based blogs. Even if you are not running a review-based blog but write many reviews on your blog, you can showcase your reviews on the sidebar. Another important widget is the Poll widget. It’s the best way to run quick surveys on your visitors.
- WP Rich Snippets: This plugin makes your reviews attractive and helps you to get star ratings on Google. It also lets you showcase reviews on the sidebar.
- Rating-Widget: Star Review System: It has a “Top Rated” widget that will allow you to place the widget in your sidebar. The device will show the top-rated posts, pages, and comments.
- TotalPoll Pro lets you easily create and add polls to your sidebar. It’s straightforward to use.
- Polldaddy Polls & Ratings: It allows you to create and manage polls from the WordPress dashboard.
9. Other Best WordPress Sidebar Widgets
There are some others widgets you can consider adding to your sidebar. But it depends on your needs. There is no reason to slow down your blog by adding unnecessary widgets.
- The Events Calendar: Easily create and manage events calendars on your WordPress site with the free plugin The Events Calendar. Whether your event is in-person or virtual, this WordPress calendar plugin offers professional features backed by our world-class team of developers and designers. The Events Calendar contains many features and is always available. It is also extensible, easy to use and fully customizable.
- Google Maps Widget: It lets you add Google Maps to your WordPress sidebar.
- Alexa Ranking Widget: You can show the Alexa ranking widget on the sidebar by using this plugin.
- DMCA Protection Widget: It protects your blog from content thieves.
10. Content Aware Sidebars
CAS is by far the fastest and most powerful WordPress sidebar plugin. Create custom widget areas in seconds.
You can optimize conversions, improve on-site SEO, resell products, and more by displaying different widget areas in other terms.
If your website is large or growing, CAS is the ideal solution for you. Show or hide widgets on every page (yes, all). Replace your theme sidebar or insert the widget area with shortcodes under different conditions. The following display conditions are available by default:
Posts, pages, and custom post types. Content with tags, categories, or custom taxonomies. Content written by selected authors. Page template. Blog page and post type archives, author archives. Category Archives. Home page, search results, 404 pages not found. bbPress profiles, forums, and topics. BuddyPress profile section. Languages (Polylang, Translate X, TranslatePress, Transposh, Weglot, WPML). pods page
Conclusion
So these are the widgets that you can use on your blog. But remember that using unnecessary widgets may slow down your blog. Now I’d like to hear from you. Let us know which devices you are using right now on your blog. However, if you found this post helpful, help me by sharing this post on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.
