Do you want to display different sidebars for different posts and pages on your WordPress site? Typically, WordPress themes show the same sidebars on fixed locations regardless of which post or page you’re on. In this article, we will show you how to create and display different sidebars for each post and pages in WordPress.
When Would You Need Different Sidebars in WordPress?
By default, sidebars are defined by your WordPress theme. Each WordPress theme comes with a few sidebars or widget ready areas that allow you to add widgets.
Typically a sidebar on the blog is displayed throughout your site on all posts, pages, categories, and archive pages. However, sometimes you may want your sidebar content to change based on specific posts or pages.
For example, you can show different featured content in the sidebar of your most popular posts, add different email signup forms, or display ads.
Having said that, let’s see how to create and display different sidebar for each post and page in WordPress.
Video Tutorial
If you don’t like the video or need more instructions, then continue reading.
Displaying Different Sidebars for Each Post and Page in WordPress
First thing you need to do is install and activate the Easy Custom Sidebars plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you need to visit the Appearance » Theme Sidebars page to create custom sidebars.
First you need to provide a name for your custom sidebar and then click on the create sidebar button.
The plugin will now create your sidebar, and you will be able to select the sidebar properties.
After that you need to select which theme sidebar will be replaced by your custom sidebar and provide a description for it.
Next, you need to select where you want your custom sidebar to replace the theme sidebar. You will see your posts, pages, categories and tags listed in the left column of the screen.
Simply select the areas where you want custom sidebar to be displayed and then click on ‘Add to sidebar’ button.
You will notice your selected items appear under the custom sidebar settings. Don’t forget to click on the save button to store your sidebar settings.
Easy Custom Sidebar allows you to create as many custom sidebars as you like and assign each sidebar to different pages on your WordPress site.
Adding Widgets to Your Custom Sidebars
Once you have created custom sidebars and assigned them to different areas of your website, it’s time to add widgets to your sidebars.
Head over to the Appearance » Widgets page. You will notice your newly created custom sidebars among your theme’s default sidebars.
You can go ahead and add widgets to your custom sidebars. The plugin will now show the sidebars based on your settings. You can visit your selected pages to see it in action.
We hope this article helped you learn how to add different sidebars to each post or page in WordPress. You may also want to see our these WordPress sidebar tricks to get maximum results.
What happens to the posts/pages which have multiple categories selected?! or with several tags?
For example, I want a custom category for the news section and another for tourism, but what happens when a post appears on both of these categories?
You would need to check with the plugin for what would happen when a conflict like that happens. If you have multiple posts in different categories then you may want to take a look at how you have your categories themselves set up
hello, I am trying to find a solution to add embed code to the sidebar of a post.
what i would like to have is a plugin that allow you to add a html or txt widget to the side of one single post, I have spent some time trying to find this but can not find! I have a website where every post is a different location and it needs a different map each post.
You may need to look for another solution as your needs grow but for now you may want to take a look at: https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-show-or-hide-widgets-on-specific-wordpress-pages/
This is what I was looking for! Thanks for the video tutorial wpbeginner…
Glad you liked our guide and it was helpful
This one seems dead Syed, plugin not updated in 2 years so likely missing a lot of integration since WordPress has undergone some major core upgrades over the last 12 months. Is there a more recent solution for sidebars?
Thank you for letting us know, we’ll certainly take a look at this article and possible alternatives
Is it possible without any plugin, on Genesis framework? because I have purchased NEWS PRO Genesis Theme.
Great article ! THanks
Thank you so much! I have been driving myself mad trying to fix the sidebar then I found your video! Thankyoooou!!
Really nice and detailed tutorial you have here. But i don’t know why after following it my sidebars are still not appearing
Hi, great video! What about creating a separate sidebar for the HOME PAGE? Is that possible?
Yes you can create a separate sidebar for the homepage if you are using the static front page.
Is there any way to show no sidebar on a certain page at all?
Remember, the other pages will have to show the sidebar.
Is there a way to change the sidebar on certain pages and have it removed entirely on others? Before I download and activate I would like to know if removing the sidebar completely and making the page width 100% as easy as making different sidebars for different pages
Hello – I have a sidebar on my weekly blog page but when I click on read more, it takes me to the full page width and doesn’t show the sidebar. I have looked everywhere to try and do this. Can anyone help please?
I tried to use the easy side bar and it does not work! I want to put a side bar only on specific pages and this put it on ALL of them.
I had learned how to use the original appearance > widgets and had right side bar on certain pages. I just added a new page to my web site and got the side bar that I did NOT want. I tried to add a left side bar to ONLY my new page and could not do it. So I looked at this video and got the plug-in easy side bars and it does not add a left side bar to ONLY the new page nor does it help me remove the right side bar [done through appearance > widgets] from the new page. Not real helpful.
Hi, I need small help that you could do. I’m planning to buy managed wordpress on godaddy. I write posts in two languages. 1 is supported by adsense and one is not. I would like to place ads on posts using this on supported only language posts. Can I do this ? Can i use this to place ads? Please could you tell me?
Hi! Can I add more sidebars with this plugin? Do I have to replace my existing sidebars with these new sidebars? For example, I have now 3 optional sidebars and I would like to have more than that. Is that possible somehow? Thanks!
I installed this plugin and now my site doesn’t work at all!! How do I fix this, it is really important! Please advise.
Jennifer
Hi Jennifer,
You can manually delete the plugin using FTP. Connect to your website using FTP client and go to /wp-content/plugins/ folder inside it you will find easy-custom-sidebars folder. Delete it and then login to your WordPress site. You can reinstall the plugin again if you want to give it another try.
Sir my sidebars are appearing at the bottom of my blog and not the side why?
Hi Jahblees,
Please check plugin settings and make sure that you set your sidebar to replace the appropriate sidebar.
Hello – I have the same problem. The only choices I get is to replace the Footer Widgets 1 – 4. There are no other choices. Any ideas? I’d like to add a sidebar to my products thats different from my blog sidebar. I am using Divi.
Thank you, Alex
I needed a super quick fix, and this did the trick nicely. Thanks!
Useful! I definitely want the ability to change my sidebar at times – my theme provides up to 8 choices, including full width (ie. none) for my pages but only ‘on’ or ‘off’ for all posts. So my question is, specifically for each individual post, could I chose 1. to add a sidebar of my choosing or 2. to have no sidebar at all (ie. full width)? Thanks
Hi Claire,
Yes, you can do that.
Thanks a lot. Your articles has been really helpful especially for me a major novice
Wow! This feature is something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. As usual, wpbeginner, makes it easy and fun! Thank you!!