Whether there is a sidebar on WordPress is a multimillion-dollar debate. With Core Web Vitals, AMP and other speed improvements, the sidebar is losing its reputation from its early days. Default WordPress themes (such as 2021 and 2022) do not even come with sidebar options. However, the sidebar gadget is the most powerful way to use it as a rhetorical term.
In addition, setting the last gadget to hover can make your click-through rate soar. In this article, we will explain how to add a hovering fixed sidebar gadget to WordPress.
Complete site editing and gadgets
Before you try to rely entirely on the sidebar gadget, pay attention to the latest trends in WordPress development. The full site editor is already here, and it completely changes the way you use sidebars and gadgets. Currently, you can see the gadget section under the appearance menu to use blocks similar to the Gutenberg Block Editor interface.
Block-based gadget editor
If you try the WordPress theme 2022, there will be no gadget area. All you can do is create a page from the template section without a sidebar. If you still stick with the old classic editor or any other page builder plug-in, you should switch to Gutenberg and prepare for this change. However, many business themes still offer sidebar layout as one of the options, and you can continue to use the sidebar gadgets for these themes.
How can the fixed gadget help you?
When the user continues to scroll down the page, the docking gadget is displayed as a fixed area. Because the fixed gadget is visible for most of the reading time, you can use it in the following ways:
- Display hot content on your site to increase traffic.
- Display advertisements to make you more money. Keep in mind that some advertising programs, such as Google AdSense, do not allow you to use sticky gadgets. If you are an AdSense publisher, you can use anchored ads on mobile and desktop devices as part of the automatic advertising setup.
- Show member coupons or transactions so that users can buy through your link and you can make money from the member commission.
- Sell a popular ebook from your own store or Amazon and try to turn clicks into potential revenue.
- Displays a countdown timer to push users to take action, such as time-limited purchases of products.
The possibilities are endless, and compared with ordinary gadgets, you will clearly see the impact of using fixed gadgets.
Add a floating fixed sidebar gadget in WordPress
There are several ways to add the hover pinning gadget to the WordPress sidebar. If you are a super geek, you can try your own CSS and set the fixed position for the last gadget on the sidebar. But let’s focus on the off-the-shelf solution that the average user is looking for.
1. Fixed gadgets and fixed elements of WordPress
This is the most commonly used option for WordPress bloggers because it is very easy to implement. Earlier, it was called Q2W3 Fixed Widget and was later taken over by Advanced Ads and actively maintained in the plug-in repository. Go to the “plug-ins & gt; installation plug-ins” section of the WordPress administration panel and search for “fixed widget”. You can find the “Fixed Widgets and Sticky Elements for WordPress” plug-in and install it on your website.
WordPress plug-in Fixed Widget
After activating the plug-in, go to the “appearance & gt; Fixed Widget Options” section. Here, you can adjust the settings of the plug-in by providing Stop ID, such as margins and where to stop floating. Typically, you don’t need to make any changes here and leave the settings the same. If you find that the gadget touches the top or bottom of the screen while scrolling, increase the margin top / bottom size to provide sufficient clearance.
Q2W3 Fixed Widget plug-in Settings
Now, go to the “appearance & gt; gadgets” section, and you can see an additional check box option under each gadget. If you are using the Classic Gadget area, you can enable the Pin Gadget check box for items that you want to display as sticky floats.
Fixed Widget option
Save the gadget and check whether the gadget is sticky when scrolling content on your real-time site. For example, we add the search gadget as the first item and set it as a fixed gadget. When you scroll the page content on a published site, it looks like this (check the search box at the top of the sidebar).
Example of a suspension fixing gadget
We recommend using the floating fixing gadget for the last item in the sidebar so that it does not affect the user experience by avoiding element overlap. If you are using the Gutenberg gadget block, all added blocks in the gadget area will have the “Fixed Widget” option shown below.
Fixed Widget options in the gadget block
two。 Theme for fixed floating gadgets
Many magazine themes in the WordPress market, such as themeforest, provide built-in options for adding fixed gadgets. For example, you can fix gadgets in the most popular newspaper topics. You can select options in the theme panel without installing additional plug-ins. However, you will encounter problems when switching themes, and you will eventually search for plug-ins for this purpose. Therefore, lightweight Q2F3 gadgets are a good choice unless you plan to use magazine-style themes for a long time.
3. AdSense and other advertising partners
As mentioned earlier, Google AdSense does not allow floating docking gadgets to be displayed in the sidebar. Anchored ads display floating banners at the top or bottom of mobile and desktop devices. If your main concern is to make money from online content, you need to try any other display advertising program that allows sticky sidebar ads. Review the AdSense replacement plan and apply for a plan that suits your traffic and layout.
You can also apply for the program from an Google certified advertising partner such as AdThrive, Mediavine, or Ezoic. These advertising agencies can help you get Google AdX approval and allow you to use fixed sidebar ads. Similarly, you can try a market like BuySellAds to easily get approval and use sticky ads on the sidebar. If you are a member of any of these programs, ask them to create a floating gadget for you. They can create an ad unit that is permanently displayed only on the desktop port view. This can multiply your revenue with other advertising technologies, such as ad rotation and anti-ad blocking.
Summary
As you can see, there are several options for adding floating docking gadgets to the WordPress sidebar. However, the solution depends on your purpose and the current settings you use. The easiest way is to use the fixed gadget WordPress plug-in that works seamlessly with any topic. You can test how the pinning gadget works for you and measure the performance of the vocabularies to determine whether to continue floating the pinning option.
