How to Add Subtitle for Posts and Pages in WordPress (Step by Step)

Do you want to add a subtitle for your WordPress posts and pages?

Subtitles can help to hook to your readers and encourage them to read the rest of your content.

In this article, we’ll show you how to add subtitles to your posts and pages, step by step.

Why Add Subtitles to Posts and Pages in WordPress?

Adding subtitles, or secondary titles, to your WordPress posts and pages lets you display more information about your article to encourage your visitors to read more.

This is common across major blogs and websites like Medium, Buzzfeed, Mashable, Brain Pickings, and many more.

Subtitles give you a chance to explain your title and tell your readers what they’ll get our of reading your WordPress blog post.

By adding subtitles to WordPress, you encourage visitors to stay on your website longer and read more content, which can increase pageviews and reduce bounce rate.

With that said, let’s show you how you can add subtitles to your WordPress posts and pages easily.

Adding Subtitles to WordPress Posts and Pages

The easiest way to add subtitles to your WordPress website is by using the Secondary Titles plugin. It lets you easily add subtitles to your posts and pages and fully customize the appearance.

First thing you need to do is install and activate the plugin. For more details, see our beginner’s guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, navigate to Settings » Secondary Title to go to the plugin settings screen.

Now, you can choose to display subtitles automatically or display them manually. Automatic placement is best for beginners, but we’ll show you more on the manual method below.

To turn on automatic placement simply select ‘On’ in the ‘Auto show’ section.

After that, you can change the appearance of your subtitle. By default, it will display the post title separated by a colon, like this:

The Post Title: The Secondary Title

To change this, simply add new HTML to the ‘Title format’ box.

As you make changes, it will automatically display in the ‘Preview’ box.

After that, you can set how you want your subtitle to display in the ‘Display Rules’ section.

You have full control over when your subtitles will display and when they will be hidden.

First, we’ll select ‘On’ in the ‘Only show in main post’ section, so our subtitles will only display if they’re in the main blog roll.

After that, you can choose the post types where you want subtitles to display in the ‘Post types’ section.

To display subtitles for posts and pages, simply check both boxes.

Next, you can choose which post categories you want to allow subtitles in the ‘Categories’ section.

Simply check the boxes for the post categories you want to allow.

You also have the option to only display subtitles for specific post IDs.

To do this, enter your post ID or multiple post IDs into the ‘Post IDs’ box.

For more details on finding your post ID, see our guide on how to find IDs in WordPress.

In the final ‘Miscellaneous Settings’ box, you can keep your subtitles searchable and switch the column position in your WordPress admin panel.

We will leave the default settings, but you can change these if you like.

After that, click the ‘Save Changes’ button to save your settings.

Now, you can create your first subtitle.

To do this, open up the post or page you want to edit and then enter your subtitle in the ‘Secondary Title’ box in the right hand menu.

Then, click ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’ to make your changes live.

Now, when your visitors view your post, they’ll see your new subtitle.

Manually Displaying Subtitles on WordPress Posts and Pages

You also have the option to display subtitles on your posts and pages manually. This gives you more control over where your subtitles will display on individual posts and pages.

To do this, simply select the ‘Off’ option in the ‘Auto show’ section in the main plugin settings screen page.

Then, you can manually display secondary titles in your WordPress theme by adding code to your theme template files.

If you haven’t done this before, then see our beginner’s guide to pasting snippets from the web into WordPress.

Next, you need to find the right template file to add the code. For most themes this will be post.php, single.php, or index.php page templates.

To learn more, see our WordPress template hierarchy cheat sheet to help find the right theme template file.

Then, add the following template tag code snippet:

<?php echo get_secondary_title(); ?>

This code snippet simply adds the subtitle to your posts or pages wherever you’d like.

We hope this article helped you learn how to add subtitles to your posts and pages in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to get a free email domain and our comparison of the best business phone services for small businesses.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.