What is a Widget in WordPress? [Beginner’s Guide]

Widgets are content blocks that you may put to the sidebars, footers, and other places of your WordPress website.

What is a Widget in WordPress? Have you ever visited a blog and seen a picture, sign-up form, or menu on the sidebar? All of those are widgets.

Without writing any code, each widget may add a feature or function to your website. Menus, lists of most-read posts, calendars, banner adverts, social media symbols, and other widgets are frequently added to websites. The initial intention behind widgets was to provide a straightforward method for customizing the look and feel of a WordPress theme.

Where on your website can you place these widgets? Everything is based on your WordPress theme. Many themes contain widget sections in the sidebar and footer. Some additionally let you add widgets to your site’s header, home page, or other places. Widget areas can be included in the header, footer, and sidebars of a web page or post.

WordPress’s widgets were developed to give users of the platform a quick and easy method to manage the layout and content of their websites without having to know any coding.

WordPress themes generally support widgets. The widget places in your WordPress theme may be in the header, footer, sidebar, immediately below the body of your blog post, or virtually anywhere else.

Categories, tag clouds, navigation menus, calendars, a search bar, and more are just some of the pre-installed widgets in WordPress. For instance, one of the most widely utilized Widgets that comes standard with WordPress is the Text Widget. Content creators can utilize it to incorporate a wide variety of media into their WordPress sites, including but not limited to text, video, photos, and individualized to-do lists.

All social media platforms like Instagram etc. have their own plugins which you could use. You can even find third party plugins that will let you customize the way you display your social media feed.

You may utilize the widgets that many WordPress plugins include to extend plugin functionality to various sections. With a plugin like WPForms, you might, for instance, add a contact form to your footer or an email newsletter form to your sidebar.

With the right widgets, you can make it easier for visitors to navigate your website and inspire them to perform certain activities, like subscribing to your newsletter or following you on social media. Let’s get started!

How to Add Widgets in WordPress

Setting up your widgets when you first start a blog is a crucial step.

Widgets are simple to use, and you can add them by dragging and dropping them into a widget space on your theme.

By accessing the Appearance » Widgets page from the admin sidebar, you can view the list of widgets that are offered on your website.

You’ll see all the available widgets on the left. The widget spaces for your theme will be presented on the right side.

You may also find a brief description of each widget you’ve installed that explains how to use it.

To place a widget in a designated area of your website, simply click and drag it from the available list to the appropriate position.

Widgets may also be shifted up and down to change their placement.

After adding the widget, you may view each widget’s individual settings. In order to save your widget settings, don’t forget to click the Save button.

How to Add a Default Widget to Your WordPress Site Using the Customizer

The WordPress Customizer is the second way to add default widgets to a WordPress site. Here’s what you need to do:

1. To get to the Customizer, go to your WordPress dashboard, hover over Appearance, and click on Customize.
2. Click on Widgets in the menu on the page’s left side.
3. Click on the area where you want to put the widget, click “Add a widget,” and then choose the widget you want from the list.
4. After you select the widget, it will show up in your site’s preview. You can change the order of the widgets by dragging them around or by clicking on the Reorder link and then clicking on the arrows that appear.
5. Configure the widget settings and click the Publish button at the top of the screen to save your changes. 

What’s the Difference Between a Widget and A Plugin?

Widgets and WordPress plugins are frequently confused.

Think about how apps and widgets are different on your phone.

To put it simply, plugins are like apps for phones. They are add-ons that must be installed and turned on from the admin plugin screen.

Plugins can add all sorts of features and functions to your WordPress site, like more widgets that you can use. The Google Maps Plugin, which adds a widget, is a good example. Not every plugin, though, adds widgets. It depends on what the plugin is used for.

Widgets, on the other hand, are blocks that you can drag and drop to add content to the sidebar and other parts of your site. Some widgets are included with WordPress by default, and you can add more by using certain plugins.

We hope that this blog posts brought some light into the Question of What is a Widget in WordPress.

WordPress’ widgets are website components that provide extra content types or information that’s separate from posts’ or pages’ main content.

Usually, they’re placed in special locations, such as the header or sidebar, called widget areas. You can also code your own widget area.

Although widgets are useful, they must be used with caution. Too many of them can clog your website or overwhelm its readers, diverting their attention away from your content.