All about Widgets

While each theme lays out the content of your site in different ways (learn how to select a theme here), most of these themes have something called widgets. Now I don’t know who made that word up, but basically a widget is a customizable block of content that fits into pre-designated areas of your site.

You can find widgets under “Appearance” in the back end of your site. When you get there, don’t be nervous. The available widgets that you can use are on the left. The content areas where those widgets can appear are on the right. All you have to do is drag the widget you want from the area on the left to the appropriate content area shown on the right. If you click the little arrow on each widget, there is usually some info you can customize. For example:

Some favorite widgets:

  • Form: Insert one of the forms you created. Good for getting feedback from your visitors.
  • Image Widget: Upload any single image and add a title, link, and description. Good for adding visual interest to your site.
  • RSS: Pull feeds from other blogs into your site. Good if you want to link with others’ writing.
  • Text: Add any text or embed HTML code. Good if want to embed YouTube videos or other code.

Are you looking for other types of functionality? There are a million widgets available to add to this system. Comment below if you’re looking for something specific, and we’ll start hunting for the best one!