WordPress Featured Posts is a functionality that allows users to highlight specific posts on their website’s homepage or other notable sections. These featured posts typically appear in a visually distinct manner, such as being displayed in a slider, grid, or carousel format, enhancing their visibility and appeal to visitors.
Website owners can manually select which posts they want to feature, often through a designated section within their WordPress dashboard or by using specific plugins or themes that offer this functionality. Featured posts are commonly used to showcase important content, promote new releases, or draw attention to specific topics or campaigns.
Therefore, featured posts make it possible to highlight the most recent and important articles on your website.
Table Of Contents
- How to Select Featured Post?
- How to Add Featured Post to WordPress Sidebar?
- Add a Featured Post in Sidebar by Creating Manu
- Add Featured Post in Sidebar Directly from Widget
- How to Add Featured Post to WordPress Posts or Pages?
- Add Featured Post in WordPress with Gutenberg Blocks
- Add Featured Post in WordPress with Columns Block
How To Select Featured Post?
Selecting the right featured post is essential to get the best result. So, here are some points that can help you narrow down your list for the optimum option –
- Using a catchy post title can draw attention and encourage a person to click on it to read more.
For example, you can use the title ‘Beginner’s Guide to Starting a WordPress Blog’ instead of ‘Start WordPress Blog.’ - Choose an article that typically includes 500 to 1500 words; however, it can depend on the topic. For example, sometimes a blog’s concept can be expressed more clearly with fewer words, while some topics may require in-depth description and plenty of words. So always focus on quality over quantity.
- Prefer simplicity over complexity; avoid confusing and embedded content. Always avoid titles no longer relevant to the content because your readers will exit the site within seconds if the title of the featured post has nothing to do with the content. It will also end up leading to a high bounce rate.
How To Add Featured Post To WordPress Sidebar?
Method 1: Add Featured Post to WordPress Sidebar using Menu
- Go to Appearance >> Menus >> Click on create a new menu and enter a name for your menu.
- After adding a name, click on the Create Menu option and continue.
You have now created a new blank menu on your WordPress.
- Click on the Post option from the left column.
- Select the posts or pages you want to highlight or display as feature posts.
- After selecting the posts, click on the Add to Menu button.
- Now, your selected posts will appear on the right side of the page; from there, you can also edit the titles of that particular post and rearrange them by dragging them up or down.
- After arranging the post and editing desired titles click the Save Menu button to save your changes.
Your menu is now ready!
- Again, go to Appearance >> Widget page, and add the Navigation Menu widget to your sidebar using the drag and drop option.
- After that, write the title of your sidebar menu widget, then select the Featured Post menu from the dropdown menu created earlier.
- Finally, click the Update button to save your widget settings.
Now visit your website to see the featured posts you have created.
Method 2: Add Featured Posts to the WordPress Sidebar using Widget
This method is straightforward and does not require any plugin.
- First, go to Appearance >> Widget.
Then, add a list widget directly to the WordPress sidebar using drag and drop. - You can see the widget at the top, which already has well-equipped formatting buttons.
There you have to add the title of your posts. - To add the posts as Featured Posts, select the particular title, click on the link button, and add a link to that blog post into that title.
- You can also add a heading and list widget by creating a group >> selecting a widget >> clicking the group icon >> selecting the Group option from the pop-up menu.
- Click the Update button to save your changes.
Visit your site to see the Featured Post in the sidebar.
How To Add Featured Posts To WordPress Posts Or Pages?
1 : Using Gutenberg Blocks
This method displays featured posts inside a WordPress post or page. If you are using the page editor, it will allow you to add featured posts in your WordPress posts or pages rather than the sidebar.
- Go to the post or page where you want to add your featured post.
- From that post, edit the page screen, click on the add new block button (+), adding the Block to your content area.
- Add the title of each blog you want to add to the featured post list.
- Select text, click the link button from the toolbar and add the link to that article.
Repeat the same process and add all the posts you want to feature.
- After adding titles and links for all the featured posts, update or publish the post to save your changes.
- You can also save this Block and reuse the same Block in other posts or pages. So you don’t need to recreate it every time.
- Click on the Block and select the three-dot menu.
Then select Add to Reusable Blocks, and give a name to the reusable Block to enable you to identify that Block.
And that’s it!
Your reusable Block is ready and will appear in the list whenever you add a block to the page.
2 : Using Columns Block
A disadvantage of all the methods we mentioned earlier is that we cannot show images with the featured posts.
However, using this method, we can display a featured post together with its image, making it look more appealing and encouraging visitors to click on it.
- First, Go to the post or Page edit screen where you wish to add your Featured Post.
- Click on the add new block button (+). And then click on option columns.
- Here you have to Select the column’s variation according to the number of posts you want to show there. Here I am selecting (33 / 33 / 33) option.
- After selecting the columns option, click upon the (+) sign and select the image option. Here you can upload or select the image you want to add to the featured post.
- Make all images the same size to display them more attractively.
- To set an image of the same size, click on the setting button on your right side. From there, head over to Block and give all images the same width and height.
- After adding the images, click upon the image and add the caption you want as your Featured post title.
- Next, select your title and add the page link to it by clicking on the link icon or using the shortcut key ctrl + K to add a link to the text.
- You can also include links to images as well.
- After adding all featured posts, Update or Publish the post to save your changes.
Visit your website to see the Featured post created with the help of the Columns Block.
Conclusion
To get impressive website traffic, attracting visitors and giving them what they are looking for is one of the most important things you can do, and including relevant/ helpful featured posts or pages is an effective option.
Now you can see that adding featured posts is quite simple, even without using any plugin. However, many plugins are available to add a more attractive and well-structured featured post.
After adding a featured post, you’ll notice that your website appears more attractive with an improved overall appearance.
