How to Add Widgets to a WordPress Theme | WP Learning Lab

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How to Add Widgets to a WordPress Theme | WP Learning Lab

One of the reasons that WordPress has become so popular is the ability to endlessly customize it. One of the ways to customize your website is adding widgets new widget area in WordPress theme.

Widgets are found under Appearance then Widgets and are most often displayed on the blog sidebar of WordPress themes.

However, as WordPress becomes more robust, developers have started adding widgets all over the place. In today's premium themes you can find widgets in the:

1. Sidebar
2. Footer
3. Header

There are even plugins that allow you to use shortcodes to include widgets right inside your WordPress posts.

Themes and plugins also add widgets that aren't available by default in WordPress. Common ones are social media integration (counters, follower displays, social content displays) widgets, Google maps widgets, eCommerce widgets, and the list goes on and on.

When you first arrive on the Widgets page you will see two columns. The first column is the Available Widgets, which are the widgets that you can currently include in your site. On the right hand column you will see all of the active widget areas that your theme supports.

To add a widget to your site simply drag it from the Available Widgets column into the Widget area where you want it to be displayed. Adjust any widget settings as needed and click on Save at the bottom of the individual widget box.

If you scroll down to the bottom of the Widget page you can save widgets and their settings that you want to use again later.

That's about all there is to know about widgets. They are pretty easy to use once you get the hang of it and they can add a lot of fun functionality to your website.

I hope this information helps you! If you have any questions leave a comment below or ping me @WPLearningLab on Twitter.

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