Do you want to display different sidebars for certain posts and pages on your WordPress site?
You usually see the same sidebar displayed throughout your site. However, you might sometimes want to show different sidebar content on some of your posts and pages.
In this article, we will show you how to create and display different sidebars for each post and page in WordPress.
When Would You Need Different Sidebars in WordPress?
When you created your WordPress website, you may have set up a sidebar with useful widgets that add features to your site and help your visitors find your best content.
The location and appearance of your sidebar depend on the theme you are using, and some don’t offer a sidebar at all. If your theme does include a sidebar, then it will look the same on all of your posts, pages, categories, and archive pages.
However, on some specific posts or pages, you might want to display different sidebar widgets. For example, you could feature different content in the sidebar of your most popular posts, add different email signup forms, or display ads that are more relevant to the post.
Having said that, let’s see how to create and display different sidebar for each post and page in WordPress.
Note: The default Twenty Twenty-One theme does not include a sidebar, so for this tutorial, we’ll be using the Twenty Sixteen theme.
If you’d like to add a custom sidebar to a theme that doesn’t display one by default, then scroll down to the section on creating a different sidebar with a page builder plugin.
Displaying Different Sidebars for Each Post and Page in WordPress
The 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 » Sidebar Replacements page to create custom sidebars.
First, you need to provide a name for your custom sidebar. We’ll call it ‘Custom Sidebar’. After that, you should select which theme sidebar will be replaced by your custom sidebar.
Next, you’ll need to select where on your website you wish to display the custom 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 the custom sidebar to be displayed and then click on ‘Add to Sidebar’ button. For this tutorial, we’ll select a single post.
You’ll notice the items you selected appear in the Sidebar Replacements section. You can now click the ‘Create Sidebar’ button to create your first custom sidebar.
Easy Custom Sidebar allows you to create as many custom sidebars as you like and assign each sidebar to different posts or 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. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to add and use widgets in WordPress.
The plugin will now show the sidebars based on your settings. You can visit your selected posts and pages to see it in action.
Creating a Different Sidebar with a Page Builder Plugin
Another way to display a different sidebar is with a drag and drop page builder plugin. This is the easiest method if your theme doesn’t already display a sidebar.
If your theme does include a sidebar, you can learn how to remove it from individual posts in our guide on how to remove the sidebar in WordPress.
SeedProd is a premium drag and drop landing page builder plugin for WordPress. In our opinion, it is by far the best WordPress page builder in the market when it comes to speed and ease of use.
When designing a custom page, it lets you easily choose a layout with a sidebar.
You then simply drag the blocks you wish to use right onto the sidebar.
You’ll find all the blocks and features that you’d expect from a powerful page builder such as optin forms, social profiles, countdown timers, contact forms, buttons, various content blocks, and more.
The best part is that some of the blocks even have pre-made templates, so you can speed up the design process by adapting your favorite block templates with a single click.
To learn more about how to use the SeedProd page builder plugin on your website, see Method 1 in our guide on how to create a custom page in WordPress.
We hope this article helped you learn how to add different sidebars to each post or page in WordPress. You may also want to learn how to choose the best WordPress hosting, or check out our list of must have plugins to grow your site.
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.
Muhammadd Farhan says
Wow, you just saved my day! looking for this solution and I got exactly what I need. Thank you for the post.
WPBeginner Support says
Glad our guide was helpful
Admin
Jim Joshua Oba says
Hello! My Sidebar has disappeared. It was displaying before it got missing. However, i din’t change the theme.
The message reads “Your theme has 1 widgets area but this particular page doesn’t display it”.
WPBeginner Support says
You would need to reach out to your theme’s support for displaying the widgets properly on that page.
Admin
Ken Mbesa says
This is exaaaaactly what I needed for my portfolio website.
Thanks WP Beginner. You guys are the best, always!
I have been a huge user of your resources for over three years now, and your website is one of my most opened bookmarks in all my browsers (in fact, it’s usually just open even when am not using it looking for WP info ;-)).
WPBeginner Support says
Glad our guides are helpful and continue to be helpful
Admin
Polly says
Mine is a very basic website but this worked like a charm. Thank you
WPBeginner Support says
You’re welcome, glad our article was helpful
Admin
M.IFTIKHAR says
Hi ! I have a problem in my wordpress website that the sidebar on shop page is not showing up but when i custimize the shop page it still show but not showing on default shop page .Please tell me why this is happening ?
WPBeginner Support says
You would want to start by reaching out to your theme’s support to see if this is a known issue with your theme and they should be able to assist.
Admin
Peter P. says
We tried this plugin but it wasn’t really usable for many sidebars. We had a hundred posts where the sidebar should contain more information about each product. Already after 10 sidebars the system became slower and slower, until it finally became unbearable with 20 or 30 sidebars.
We then used a different, differently designed solution that didn’t require a sidebar.
WPBeginner Support says
Thank you for sharing your feedback about the plugin
Admin
Poorya says
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?
WPBeginner Support says
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
Admin
Marco Diversi says
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.
WPBeginner Support says
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/
Admin
Shivaja says
This is what I was looking for! Thanks for the video tutorial wpbeginner…
WPBeginner Support says
Glad you liked our guide and it was helpful
Admin
BRENDAN says
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?
WPBeginner Support says
Thank you for letting us know, we’ll certainly take a look at this article and possible alternatives
Admin
Rushikesh says
Is it possible without any plugin, on Genesis framework? because I have purchased NEWS PRO Genesis Theme.
Nick says
Great article ! THanks
Katy says
Thank you so much! I have been driving myself mad trying to fix the sidebar then I found your video! Thankyoooou!!
aba charles says
Really nice and detailed tutorial you have here. But i don’t know why after following it my sidebars are still not appearing
Greg Svishchov says
Hi, great video! What about creating a separate sidebar for the HOME PAGE? Is that possible?
WPBeginner Support says
Yes you can create a separate sidebar for the homepage if you are using the static front page.
Admin
Soumik Sadman Anwar says
Is there any way to show no sidebar on a certain page at all?
Remember, the other pages will have to show the sidebar.
becka says
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
Linda says
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?
Dr Jill SM says
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.
K.Mr says
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?
Kati K. says
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!
Jennifer L says
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
WPBeginner Support says
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.
Admin
Jahbless says
Sir my sidebars are appearing at the bottom of my blog and not the side why?
WPBeginner Support says
Hi Jahblees,
Please check plugin settings and make sure that you set your sidebar to replace the appropriate sidebar.
Admin
Ale Goedrich says
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
Jason A. says
I needed a super quick fix, and this did the trick nicely. Thanks!
Claire C says
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
WPBeginner Support says
Hi Claire,
Yes, you can do that.
Admin
Iboro says
Thanks a lot. Your articles has been really helpful especially for me a major novice
Dave DeWitt says
Wow! This feature is something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. As usual, wpbeginner, makes it easy and fun! Thank you!!