WordPress Widgets are the functional blocks mostly used in sidebars for adding content and features. Now-a-days WordPress Widgets are not just limited to sidebars but there are many good themes which provides you with more widget areas like Twenty Fourteen WordPress theme has three different widget areas: First is the primary sidebar (on left), second widgets area is content sidebar (on right) and the third widget area is present on the footer and hence widgets can be added on all there widget areas.
WordPress Widgets enables you to add chunks of information which can be of many different types. Hence, a widget can be used for various purposes like default WordPress widgets (comes installed in WordPress) enables you to display recent posts, recent comments, post archives, RSS feed, tag cloud etc.
More widgets can be added via plugins. For example: You can install socialmash widget plugin to showcase your social media profile links or you can use a widget for showing recent videos from a YouTube Channel. See our tutorials about awesome WordPress Widget plugins.
[quote cite=”Codex at WordPress.org”]Widgets were originally designed to provide a simple and easy way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress Theme to the user, which is now available on properly “widgetized” WordPress Themes to include the header, footer, and elsewhere in the WordPress design and structure.[/quote]
Where To Find New Widgets?
Some widgets come packed with your WordPress installation, some are provided by your theme and more widgets can be added by installing new plugins. You can check out the free WordPress widget plugins by visiting your Dashboard -> Plugins -> Add New page and clicking the ‘Widgets‘ tag filter.
How To Add A WordPress Widget In Your Sidebar Or Any Other Widget Area?
All widgets can be added and managed from Dashboard -> Appearance -> Widgets page.
For example:
Suppose you want to add a ‘Search’ widget in your sidebar then login to your WordPress admin area. Navigate to Appearance -> Widgets admin page and drag ‘Search‘ Widget to your sidebar’s widget area.
You may give a title to your search widget and then click the ‘Save‘ button. That’s it, open your website in a new tab and see it should be there.
Same process is used for adding all other types of widgets, the only difference is the options that an individual widget asks you to setup as soon you drag and drop it. Widget options entirely depends on the widget type. For example: A Facebook like box widget will ask you to add your FB page URL and a Custom Menu widget will ask you to select a menu to display.
If you have any questions feel free to use the following comment form.