10 tips for using WordPress widgets on your blog

Posted by Ben on February 18, 2009 | Permalink | Hits: 8078 
Tags: wordpress, widgets

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If you're using a WordPress blog, you'll have widgets at your disposal. These allow you to add custom blocks to your blog and control what information is displayed.

First, you'll need to find the Widgets screen. In WordPress 2.7 or newer, you can find it by expanding the Appearance menu and clicking Widgets.

WordPress widgets - Finding the menu option

Now that we've found the menu option, here are a few things you can do with widgets. Note, this is not a complete list, it's just a list of some useful things you should try out.

1. Turn off the "Meta" box.

The first thing I do after installing WordPress is to turn off the "Meta" box. I wonder how many beginners even know what "meta" means? (It means "data", or "information" - I'd prefer to see a non-techy word for this box.)

To remove it, go to the widgets screen. You'll see "Available Widgets" on the left, and "Current Widgets" on the right. Look under Current Widgets - there should be a box called "Meta". Click the Edit link and the box will expand, like this:



Click the Remove button. The box will disappear. Finally, click the blue Save Changes button at the bottom of the screen, and you're done.

Please note that by removing this widget, you'll need to bookmark a link to your WordPress Dashboard. The URL is: yoursite.com/wp-admin/

2. Display a list of your latest tweets.

Want a simple way to show your latest updates on Twitter? No problem! Start by going to your Twitter profile - not twitter.com/home, but twitter.com/yourprofile. Look for this link:



Click "RSS feed of (username's) updates" and you'll be taken to a feed. The URL of the page will be something like this: twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/xxxxxxxx.rss - the Xs will be replaced with numbers, it's a different number for each user. Copy this link - you'll need it in a moment.

Go to the Widgets page and add the "RSS" widget - look for it in the list of Available Widgets, and click the Add link. This will move it to the right-hand column. Click the Edit link and you'll be able to see the options for this widget.



In the first box, paste the URL you copied earlier. The other options are up to you - by all means try a couple of them out and see what you like best. The options I use are shown in the screenshot.

When you're done, click the Done button (believe it or not), then click the blue Save Changes button at the bottom. You now have a Twitter widget!

3. Recent posts.

This is a quick one that some blogs find useful. Activate the "Recent Posts" widget using the Add link, then click Edit and you can enter a title along with the number of posts to display. The widget will automatically display links to the number of posts you specify.

Some bloggers argue that there's not much point using this widget if you already have the posts displayed in full on your home page. However, it does provide a quick and easy way for readers to see some of your latest posts without having to scroll down the page. Also, it can be handy if you want to display 3 full posts on your front page, but link to 5 or 10 in the widget. The choice is yours.

Of course, it's only useful if you have posts.

4. Recent comments.

This is similar to recent posts, but for comments. Click the Add link next to the "Recent Comments" widget, then click Edit - you'll see the same options as for Recent Posts.

I think this is a bit more useful than Recent Posts because it shows which posts have new comments, whereas Recent Posts duplicates what is already on the front page of most sites.

Of course, it's only useful if you have comments.

5. Blogroll.

A blogroll is used to link to other blogs that you enjoy reading. Unlike most of the other widgets, this one is more involved. You need to start by clicking the Links option in the Dashboard, then click Add New.



Fill in the name of the site you wish to link to, fill in the link, enter a short description, and tick the "Blogroll" option under Categories. Now click the Add Link button on the far right. This will add the link to your blogroll.

To actually display the blogroll on your blog, go back to the Widgets page, find the "Links" widget and click Add. Then click Save Changes and you'll have a blogroll!

From that point onwards, you can easily add or edit your blogroll by going to the Links page. Once more people discover how to do this... blogs will roll.

6. Tag Cloud.

If you use tags in your posts, this will display a "cloud" of your tags according to how much they're used. The bigger the tag, the more posts are using that tag. You can also click on a tag to display all of the posts with that tag.



To add this widget, go to the Widgets page, find the Tag Cloud widget, click Add, click Done, click Save Changes. Finished!

7. Categories.

Turnip doesn't like categories. He told me it's silly to use the Categories widget if you only ever post in one category. He's got a point - at the time I was only using the "Blogging Tips" category.

Since then, I've recategorised a lot of my posts - now only 14 remain in the "Blogging Tips" category. Take that, Turnip!

Oh yeah, I should probably tell you how to enable the widget. Go to the Widgets page, find the Categories widget, then click Add. This widget has a couple of options, so let's see what we've got:

1. Title: the text that appears at the top of the widget box.
2. Show as dropdown: by default, the category widget displays a list of links to your categories. Use this option and you'll have them neatly contained within a drop down list.
3. Show post counts: with this turned off, you'll just have a list of the categories and nothing else; turn it on and you'll see how many posts are in each category. e.g. Great Posts (250) Bad Posts (1) Turnip Posts (5). (Any resemblance to statistics living or dead is purely coincidental.)
4. Show hierarchy: it's possible to create categories that nest inside each other, similar to how birds nest in trees. But without the birds or the trees. Anyway, this option will show your categories as you intended them, so if you have several subcategories under a big "Music" category, you'll see a staggered list of categories with lines going all over the place.

8. Search.

It's a good idea to give your readers a way to search your blog. As you write more and more posts, it can become increasingly difficult to find old posts. Tags and categories help, but sometimes you really do need a search engine.

Guess how you enable the Search widget? Find it on the Widgets page, then do the usual: Add - Done - Save Changes. Hopefully you're getting the hang of this by now!

9. Archives.

Similar to categories, but for the dusty old posts that time forgot. The Archives widget is good if you want to show the history of your blog, month by month. If you've blogged for more than a year, it's probably best to choose the drop down list or your archives will be a mile long.



To enable it... go to the Widgets page, click Add next to the Archives widget, and click Edit to choose your options. You can choose to use a dropdown and show post counts, much like the categories widget. When you're done, click Done, then Save Changes.

The Archives widget might be of the most benefit to a blog where the time period is important. A personal diary or a corporate blog (such as the CMF Ads Blog) are two blogs that might use this widget.

10. The CMF Ads widget.

I saved the best for last! You'll need to install a plugin to get this one working, but once you've done that part, you'll have a new widget option to choose from. You can read more about it on the CMF Ads Blog: CMF Ads plugin for WordPress.

Of course, you do have to be a member of CMF Ads to use it. This plugin is by far the easiest way to get the CMF Ads widget on your site.

Troubleshooting

Perhaps the most common issue you may find is that the widgets don't show up on your blog when you make changes. This may be because you do not have a "widget-enabled" theme. If you have any problems or need any help with your WordPress widgets, check out the WordPress forum over at CMF Ads.

Which widgets do you use? Are there any other WordPress tips you'd like to see in the future?

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Comments on 10 tips for using WordPress widgets on your blog

4

Ben | February 20, 2009 | Ben's home page | 207 comments

Thanks for the comments. :)

Deimos - that seems odd - I can understand why a post and a page wouldn't be able have the same name, or why two posts couldn't share the same name... but tags and categories use different URLs, don't they?

Bill - hmm, not sure what's going on there...

Bas - thanks for the tip.

6

Ben | March 05, 2009 | Ben's home page | 207 comments

Good work Jeremy, I've never liked "Meta" - both for the name and the fact I'm really the only person who needs to see those links :)