Would you like to have separate sidebars on your WordPress website for different posts and pages?
Most of the time, you’ll want your entire website or blog to display the same sidebar. On occasion, though, you might need to have different sidebar content displayed on some of your pages and posts.
We’ll walk you through creating and displaying various sidebars for every WordPress post and page in this article.
When Would Different WordPress Sidebars Be Needed?
A sidebar is a feature of many WordPress themes that allows you to add content and useful widgets. For instance, a lot of websites include a list of recent posts or add a search bar to the sidebar.
By default, the sidebar on your WordPress theme will appear the same on all of your pages, posts, categories, and archive pages.
On some posts and pages, though, you might want to have different sidebar widgets displayed.
For instance, you could display ads that are more appropriate for a given page or show different content in the sidebar of your most popular posts.
Depending on the information on the page, you could even use distinct contact forms.
That being said, let’s look at how to make and show a unique sidebar for every WordPress post and page. Just click the quick links below to go directly to the desired method:
Method 1: Easily Display Various Sidebars for Every Post and Page in WordPress
Method 2: Using a Page Builder Plugin to Create a Different Sidebar That Works With Any WordPress Theme
Method 1: Easily Display Various Sidebars for Every Post and Page in WordPress
Lightweight Sidebar Manager makes it simple to create multiple sidebars if your theme allows sidebar widgets. With the help of this plugin, you can create as many unique sidebars as you like and then designate them for various posts and pages. Additionally, you can include them in custom post types or give every page or post that belongs to a particular category a sidebar.
Installing and turning on the Lightweight Sidebar Manager plugin is the first step. See our detailed instructions on installing a WordPress plugin for more information.
You must navigate to Appearance » Sidebars after activation. In order to generate the initial sidebar, select the “Add New” option.
At this point, you can type a title for the sidebar. You are free to use this however you see fit, as it is merely for your reference.
After that is finished, select the location where you want the sidebar to appear by opening the “Sidebar To Replace” dropdown menu. Depending on your WordPress theme, the options you see might change.
You can now create inclusion or exclusion rules to control the sidebar’s display location.
Simply open the ‘Display On’ dropdown and select the pages, posts, custom post types, or categories where you want to use the sidebar to create an inclusion rule.
You could, for instance, add the sidebar to a particular page, like the author archive or your 404 error page.’
By choosing “Specific Pages/Posts/Taxonomies,” you can also use the sidebar for a specific page, post, or category.
This includes an additional box to enter the page, post, or category.
Click the “Add Display” Rule button to create additional inclusion rules.
This includes a new section where the new inclusion rule can be created.
You have the option to instead establish exclusion rules. For instance, you might want to display the sidebar on all pages other than the home page.
Additionally, you can combine inclusion and exclusion rules to specify the precise location of the sidebar on your WordPress website.
Simply select the “Add Exclusion Rule” button to start creating an exclusion rule.
Choose the page or post that shouldn’t use this sidebar by opening the dropdown menu in the newly added “Do Not Display On” section.
Using the same procedure as above, you can also remove the sidebar from pages that belong to a particular category.
Once the sidebar on your WordPress blog has been decided upon, you might want to display different content to different users.
If your website is a membership site, for instance, you may use a different sidebar for guests than for members who are logged in.
To accomplish this, select a role from the dropdown menu by opening the “User” dropdown. Those who have this particular user role will no longer be able to see the sidebar.
As a last step, you might want to write an optional description. This is a good way to share information with other admins or users on a multi-author WordPress blog, as it will only show up in the WordPress dashboard.
You can also use this field to write yourself notes and useful reminders if you plan to create a lot of sidebars.
Click “Publish” once you are satisfied with the data you have entered.
After completing that, select Appearance » Widgets. Now you can see the new sidebar you made in the previous step along with all the widget-ready areas that your theme supports by default.
As with any other widget-ready area, you can now add widgets to the sidebar.
See our help on adding and using widgets for detailed instructions.
Click “Update” once you are satisfied with the sidebar’s configuration.
Now, the new sidebar will be visible to you when you visit your WordPress blog.
You can simply repeat these steps to create additional custom sidebars.
Method 2: Using a Page Builder Plugin to Create a Different Sidebar That Works With Any WordPress Theme
Even if sidebars are not supported by your theme, you can still use a drag-and-drop page builder plugin to create various sidebars.
The greatest WordPress landing page builder plugin is called SeedProd. You don’t need to know any code to create any kind of custom page with this plugin. Additionally, it features dozens of expert site kits and templates that you can quickly modify and customize with the drag-and-drop builder.
You have the option to select a sidebar-containing layout when creating a custom page.
Then all you have to do is locate the blocks you wish to display in that sidebar and drag and drop them into place.
With features and blocks like opt-in forms, social profiles, countdown timers, contact forms, buttons, multiple content blocks, and more, SeedProd is every bit as powerful a page builder as you could hope for. This facilitates the creation of strong and distinctive sidebars for WordPress blogs.
