How to Add Sidebars

Sidebars are used to display supplementary information, navigation menus, advertisements, or other relevant content that enhances the user’s experience or provides additional context to the main content.

They help readers navigate through your website easily.

Astra Theme Walkthrough Docs:

1. Astra Theme Walkthrough
2. This Is Your Customizer
3. Style Your Website With Global Settings
4. Build Your Header
5. Find the Way With Breadcrumbs
6. Set Up Your Blog
7. Add Your Sidebars (currently reading)
8. Build Your Footer
9. Host Google Fonts Locally – Performance Is the Key
10. See Other Customizer Options
11. How To Build Quick Sites With Astra?
12. Getting the Most Out of Astra Theme

Enable Sidebar for the Entire Website

The Sidebar option in your Customizer allows you to add sidebars across your entire website by setting Default Layout. 

You can access this section from your WordPress dashboard at Astra > Customize > General > Sidebar.

These are the available sidebar options to choose from:

No Sidebar

This is the default selected option. Choose this if you do not want to display a sidebar on your website.

Left Sidebar

Displays the sidebar on the left side of your website.

Right Sidebar

Displays the sidebar on the right side of your website.

Sidebar Style

Set the sidebar style as either boxed or unboxed.

Sidebar Width

You can increase/decrease the size of your sidebar by adjusting this slider.

Enable Sticky Sidebar

The sidebar sticks to the side of your screen as you scroll down. Learn more about it here.

Note: The above options will apply these sidebar settings all across your website.

Enable Sidebar for a Specific Page or Post

To override the sidebar for one individual page or post, without affecting the rest of the site, use the Astra Meta Settings available in the page/post editor:

1. Open the page or post in the WordPress editor.
2. Click the Astra icon at the top of the editor screen.
3. Under the Sidebar settings, select a left, right or no sidebar position for this page only.
4. Click Update or Publish to save the changes.

These settings take priority over the sidebar options set in the Customizer.

Set a Default Sidebar Layout for a Post Type

To apply a sidebar layout across an entire post type at once (rather than one page at a time), configure it under Post Types in the Customizer:

• Pages: Astra > Customize > Post Types > Single Page
• Blog Posts: Astra > Customize > Post Types > Single Post
• Archives (e.g. Blog Archive): Astra > Customize > Post Types > Blog/Archive

Note: Depending on what plugins you have activated, you will be able to set the sidebars for additional pages (e.g. WooCommerce or LearnDash pages).

Click Publish to apply these changes.

Show Different Sidebar Content on Different Pages

The options above control whether a sidebar is shown and its position, but they all use the same sidebar content across the site. To display entirely different content in the sidebar depending on the page, use the free Lightweight Sidebar Manager plugin. See Adding Custom Sidebar to the Theme with Lightweight Sidebar Manager plugin for full setup steps.

That’s all! We hope this guide helps you. If you face any issues, please contact us. We’re always here to help!