There has been a great debate between having a blog with sidebars or without sidebars. Well, most of the people use sidebars because they have the ability to enhance the content, which is written on a site. On the other end, many website owners abandon it because they only need to highlight their content.
In this post, we will try to find out that what would be better for your blog: sidebars or no sidebars. But, before getting into this topic, we will explain the meaning of sidebars and its role in a web page.
What is a Sidebar?
A sidebar is a theme feature, which is introduced with version 2.2. It is a vertical column that is provided by a theme for showcasing the information apart from the main content of a web page.
Themes offer at least one sidebar at the right or the left of the website content. They usually contain widgets that can be customized by the site’s administrator. The usage of sidebars in a site is completely depends upon the choices of the theme designer. However, many WP themes support assorted sidebars that are also known as widget ready areas.
A sidebar aside your content helps the visitor to navigate the other information related to your site and it also enhances the overall design of a web page. In a sidebar, you can see an “About” the author section, email sign up forms, social media links and popular posts. The content written in the sidebars are for navigation that means it doesn’t provide any information about the main article.
Role of Sidebars
Sidebars play a significant role in designing the WordPress site’s layout. It is used to display the content other than the main blog of a site. In other words, it is often for secondary content purposes. Secondary content is essential to your website because it helps readers to navigate in a different way. It usually highlights such sections of the site that need to gain the attention of the users with an objective to fulfill the goals of a site.
Why People Remove Sidebars from Their Blog?
Despite its benefits, many website owners have removed their sidebar from the blogs in order to highlight the main content of a website. We can say that sidebar is not important for all blogs. Others remove their sidebar because it disturbs readers while they are reading the main content. And, not a single blogger wants their readers to ignore their posts and blogs.
From the online marketing point of view, many website owners claim that a sidebar can both increase and reduce the conversion rate of a site.
The Conflict between Results Page and Result Page
On results page, or search results page like a blog home page that enlists latest posts for a specified keyword. The navigation sidebar enables the readers to find what they are looking for by providing more results. But, a sidebar may be inefficient for a result oriented pages, such as a blog post or “About” page, such pages that would be the result of a search or a listing.
Well, here I am not saying that sidebar distracts people from your article or post. But the simple thing is that, if your readers find your content boring, then they would probably see your sidebar to fetch something engaging.
The Sidebar in Context
We have tried to explain you the significance of the sidebar in the site. We also have discussed that this type of a sidebar may be unnecessary on result oriented page. Contrary to adding a navigation sidebar in a blog post, why don’t we create a sidebar specifically for the blog post? Can’t we build a sidebar that can boost the purpose of the page to intensify the blog post?
Marketers Delight: Create Custom Sidebars Easily
With Marketers Delight, bloggers can easily add, modify, remove and create a custom sidebar on any blog post or page. It usually displays engaging responsive menu with dropdown navigation, a search bar and social media icons.
In fact, Marketers Delight allows you to add your sidebars with some relevant and powerful inbuilt widgets such as the Email sign up form, Content spotlight, etc. You can also modify any widget to match the context of your post or page.
Conclusion
We can say that we got a sidebar that helps you in boosting the message of your blog post. Now you can make your readers engage with the main content, as your sidebar only displays the content related to the main article or blog.
4 Responses
Hi…..
Nice Blog For sidebar and No side bar. A sidebar is Theme purpose use introduced with version 2.2. We provided by a theme for showcasing the information apart from the main content of a web page.
Its the age of smart sidebars which show banners and content as per the main post. Not only they help in reducing bounce rate but also helps blog admins to monetize quickly with banners. I do think that sidebars are here to stay in future web design as well.
I like the side bar still showing on iPad vetical screen. Then let it go down when smaller. I just don’t like to read a long time of words. Some language like Thai, it is really long lol. And you can still show people what you want them to see. some people not scroll longer than the article. They won’t see your ads. Instead go to click X button.
I do not know what is in the mind of those bloggers removing their sidebar. It is a nice piece of real estate where you can put your featured post and opt-in forms which engages your site visitors. Advertisements may also be put there without getting in the way of your article.