There are two ways to create a sticky sidebar which follows the users while they’re scrolling down the page. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how it’s done by using a plugin. If you want me to do a video on how to do it manually, comment below and if there’s enough interested I’ll make it happen.
Sticky sidebars are useful for many things including making an ad follow the user down the page so you know for sure they’ve seen it.
You can either watch the detailed video tutorial below or scroll below that to read the image/text version of the tutorial.
Install The Fixed Sidebar Plugin
Also always, make sure you backup your site before you install a plugin so in case something goes wrong you can restore your site. Here’s a step-by-step backup tutorial on YouTube and here’s a restore tutorial.
With that out of the way, you need to hover over plugins and click on Add New.
Then, look up the q2w3 sticky widget plugin using the search bar.
This is the plugin you’ll need to download and activate. It has lots of installs and great reviews. It may not be compatible with your version of WordPress and that’s why we backup your site just in case.
Install the plugin by clicking on Install Now.
Once installed, click on Activate to start working on your sticky widget creation.
After you’ve activated the plugin, you will see a new menu item under Appearance called Fixed Widget Options. We may not have to change any settings because they are often good how they are.
So hover over Appearance and then click on Widgets to open the widget area.
All of the widgets will now have a Fixed Widget as one of their options. This option was not there before the plugin was installed. Here’s how it looks:
To make a widget stick or multiple widgets sticky you just need to check the box and click save.
Now go to any page on your site that has the widgets and refresh it. The fixed widget will now follow you as you scroll down the page.
It’s usually best to use the last widget in your sidebar as the fixed widget because if you don’t it may float over and block other widgets as the user scrolls down the page.
A common issue that occurs is you can’t see all of the widget as you scroll down the page. That’s easily fixed on the Fixed Widget Options page.
If you can’t see the title of the widget, change the margin top from 100 and save changes.
This will create a 100px distance between the top of the page and the top of the widget. That may be enough space or it may not be enough. You’ll have to do some trial and error to find the perfect amount of margin for your site.
In the video tutorial we go through many more options that you can use to manipulate with your fixed widgets. If there are any issues with your fixed widgets, you might want to try checking some of the compatibility boxes to see whether that resolves the issue or not. If not, make sure you comment below and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
That’s how simple it is to make a sticky widget. The process is pretty straightforward. It is a useful tool to have if you want an image, a block of text or almost anything to follow the user while reading they read your content.
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