Widgets can add features, content, and additional elements that allow you to add virtually anything to your site. In this article we’re going to go over 25 of the most useful widgets for your WordPress site that will improve your user experience and allow you to easily grow your business.
1.WP Call Button
As mobile traffic becomes more and more prominent, catering to mobile users has become more vital than ever. Most businesses will have a call extension on Google allowing people to easily contact you if they have questions, but with the WP Call Button widget you can add a click to call now button to your website, eliminating the need for customers to go back to Google or search through your contact page in order to find your phone number. You can set this up as a sticky button that scrolls with the user or as a sidebar.
2.WP Forms
WP Forms is the best WordPress contact form plugin on the market. It allows you to set up any kind of contact form quickly and easily and place it anywhere on your site. It comes with a drag and drop form builder, ready-to-use form templates, Gutenberg block, and a sidebar widget. WP Forms is a premium plugin but a free version with less features is available as WPForms Lite.
3.RafflePress
RafflePress is the best WordPress giveaway or contest plugin. It allows you to create viral gateways for contests, raffles, or giveaways that instantly brings in high levels of traffic, new customers, and new subscribers. It allows you to run a giveaway and add it to a page, post, or sidebar widget as well as allowing you to create a stand-alone landing page for the giveaway that you then promote on other platforms. Just like WP Forms, RafflePress is a premium plugin but it offers a free version with limited features call RafflePress Lite.
4.Recent Post Widget with Thumbnails
By default WordPress comes with a pre-installed recent posts widget that displays a list of your most recent posts. Recent Posts Widget with Thumbnails expands on this widget by allowing you to include thumbnails with this list of recent posts. It uses the features image or first listed image as the thumbnail for the post. You can also change the height and width of the image within the widget settings if you wish.
5.Astra Widgets
Astra Widgets is a pack of widgets put together by the creator of the popular Astra Theme. It is compatible with any WordPress theme and with all of the popular page builder plugins, so even if you’re not using Astra for your theme you can still utilize these widgets. There are three widgets within the pack: a business location widget, a social profile links widget, and an icon list widget.
6. Simple Social Icons
Simple Social Icons is a simple widget that adds social media icons to your sidebars. You can choose which social media networks you want to link and on which sidebars within the widget’s configuration settings. You can also customize the icon to match your site by changing the icon font color and background color. This plugin is built by StudioPress, the company behind the very popular Genesis Theme Framework.
7. Google Maps Widget
If you have a physical store location it’s always a good idea to include a map showing your store’s location on your site. The best way to do this is with the Google Maps Widget, which allows you to show a Google map on your site. Users can then click on this map to be sent to larger map, making getting directions easier than ever.
8. Google Maps Widget
You may have seen on some popular sites that their follower count is displayed next to their social media icons in the sidebar. This can add some credibility to your site by showing how large of a following you have online. Social Count Plus displays your social media account followers only, it does not show the number of shares an individual post may have. If you are interested in displaying the number of shares a particular article has on your website, then Shared Counts is a plugin you should check out as well. It allows you to add social media share counts to individual posts rather than counting the entire account. You can also easily add social sharing buttons to your posts and pages with Shared Count.
9. Google Maps Widget
WordPress comes with a default monthly archive widget that shows your blog archives in a long list of months. Compact Archives takes these archives and compacts them to show by year instead of by month to easily organize your archives in a neat and compact way. It also comes with a Gutenberg block that can be added to posts and pages and a widget to add in to your blog’s sidebar.
10. OptinMoster
OptinMonster is the best lead generating software on the market and can significantly increase the number of new viewers on your site that turn into subscribers and customers. It allows you to add sign-up forms in sidebar widgets, lightbox popups, floating bars, and more. OptinMonster is one of the best WordPress plugins for anyone with an eCommerce site that is trying to improve their conversions.
11. AdSanity
Not everyone wants to have ads show up on their site, but if you are planning on displaying ads AdSanity is one of the best ad management plugins for WordPress. It allows you to easily display ads anywhere on your site and comes with a widget that allows you to automatically show ads next to your blog posts. If you are planning on using Google AdSense, banner ads, or affiliate marketing to support your business AdSanity is an extremely useful plugin to have. AdSanity works to maximize your ad space and generate more revenue.
12. Testimonials Rotator
Testimonial Rotator is a quick and easy way to add additional social proof to your website. It adds customer testimonials to your site, giving further proof of your credibility. It is one of the best testimonial plugins for WordPress on the market and comes with a widget that allows you to display testimonials in a rotating motion within the sidebar.
13. Feature a Page Widget
Feature a Page Widget allows you to feature pages in your WordPress sidebar. You can choose to display a page title, a featured image, and a short description or excerpt. This widget is especially useful for any type of website that may have many different pages and posts that would otherwise be missed by your users.
14. Easy Table of Contents
Easy Table of Contents plugin allows you to easily add a table of contents to any post. This is especially handy if you regularly post longer articles, this gives your readers to jump to the section they need rather than having to scroll through the entire article. You can also set this up as a widget in the sidebar.
15. Widget Context
Widget Context allows you to show and hide widgets based on context. This allows you to enable widgets for certain pages while keeping them off of others.
16. Q2W3 Fixed Widget for WordPress
Your widgets will usually disappear as a user scrolls past them on the screen. With the Q2W3 Fixed Widget for WordPress plugin you can fix your sidebar and widgets to the page so that they move with your user as they scroll down the page.
17. WordPress Popular Posts
WordPress Popular Posts is the best popular posts plugin for WordPress. As the name suggests, it allows you to display your most popular posts in WordPress. The plugin also comes with a widget that can be added to the sidebar. Additionally, you can use the shortcode or template tag to display popular posts anywhere on your site.
18. WP-PostRatings
WP-PostRatings plugin allows you to easily add a post rating system to your WordPress website. Your users can then rate articles on your site and provide you with instant feedback. This plugin also comes with a widget that can be places into a sidebar.
19. Theme My Login
Theme My Login allows you to customize your log-in page in more powerful and advanced ways. This is incredibly useful if you run a site with customer registration or if you run a site with multiple blog authors. It also comes with a widget which can be placed into a sidebar to make signing in even easier for your users.
20. Advanced AJAX Product Filters
Advanced AJAX Product Filters allows you to display an instant product filter for your WooCommerce store. You can allow your users to filter products by price, rating, or attributes by simply adding a filter widget to your sidebar.
21. Google Language Translator
Google Language Translator plugin allows you to easily add a language switcher widget to your WordPress site. It uses Google Translate to translate content on your website in any language, making your content accessible to anyone.
22. Widget Importer & Exporter
Now that you have set up your widgets and configured their settings, you may want to move them to another website. This is where Widget Importer & Exporter plugin is extremely useful. It allows you to download all your widgets as JSON files, which you can then import onto any other WordPress site. If you are using the same theme and plugins, then all your widgets will be imported exactly as they were. If you are using a different theme that contains differing widget areas than the old theme, then those widgets will be imported as inactive widgets. You can then drag and drop them to any widget area you like.
23. Advanced AJAX Product Filters
The Events Calendar is one of the best WordPress calendar plugins on the market, allowing you to easily manage event listings on your website. You can add new events, display an events calendar on a post or page, and display upcoming events in a sidebar widget.
24. Yet Another Related Post Plugin (YARPP)
Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP) is the best WordPress related posts plugin on the market, allowing you to easily display related content for any article on your website. It uses an advanced algorithm to match content which allows it to show more contextually related posts than other plugins. It also comes with a widget that you can use to display related posts in a sidebar.
25. Posts in Sidebar
Posts in Sidebar is a really simple but highly useful plugin. It allows you to show specific posts in a sidebar widget. You can select which posts you want to show, display them with a title, excerpt, and a thumbnail, or show posts as plain lists. You can also use it with the Widget Context plugin to show different posts on different areas of your website.