Sticky posts are an underutilized but powerful feature in WordPress. By pinning posts to the top of your site, you can keep important content visible despite new posts continually pushing old content down the page.
In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll explore six clever ways to use sticky posts to boost engagement and promote your best content.
Contents
What Are Sticky Posts and Why Use Them?
A sticky post refers to any post that you "pin" to the top of your blog page. As regular posts are added, the sticky post remains fixed in place while the others scroll underneath it chronologically.
Some key reasons you may want to use sticky posts include:
- Highlighting popular evergreen content
- Featuring new products, services, or announcements
- Sharing time-sensitive info like sales/promos/events
- Driving traffic to key pages like "About Us" or "Contact"
- Keeping valuable content above the fold
Without using sticky posts, your best performing and most useful posts can quickly get buried under newer content. 53% of site visitors will not scroll past the first page [1]. Sticky posts ensure crucial information is always visible above the fold.
Display Sticky Posts in Your Sidebar
By default, sticky posts only appear pinned to the top of your main blog page. However, you may want to also highlight them in your sidebar.
This provides ongoing promotion of your most important content throughout your site.
To show sticky posts in your sidebar:
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Install and activate the Recent Posts Widget With Thumbnails plugin.
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Go to Appearance > Widgets and add the "Recent Posts" widget.
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In the widget settings, check the box for "Show only sticky posts"
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Drag the widget wherever you want sticky posts to appear in your sidebar.
Now visitors will see your stickies showcased in the sidebar. This will pique their interest and drive more clicks through to your must-read content.
Pro Tip: You can add multiple "Recent Sticky Posts" widgets to your sidebar to break up promotion of sticky content into categories like "Breaking News", "Featured Products", etc.
Display Sticky Posts on Category Archives
Sticky posts only appear on your main blog page by default. But what if you want to feature sticky content on your category, tag, and custom taxonomy archives as well?
The Sticky Posts – Switch plugin gives you control over where your sticky posts display across your site.
To show stickies on category archives:
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Install and activate the Sticky Posts – Switch plugin.
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Go to Settings > Sticky Posts – Switch in your WP dashboard.
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Check the box next to "Categories" under the Archives section.
Now your sticky posts will stick to the top of all your category archives in addition to your main blog. This puts a spotlight on your top posts relevant to each category.
67% of marketers say blog category pages generate the most ROI [2]. Sticky posts can help increase clicks and engagement on these high-value archives.
Resurface Old Sticky Posts
Over time, your older sticky posts get buried as you continually add new stickies to the top. But sometimes you want to bring back an old sticky post and give it renewed exposure.
A simple shortcode makes this possible:
[recent_stickies]
Add this shortcode anywhere in your content. It will output a list of your most recent sticky posts. For example:
[recent_stickies posts=5]
This shortcode will show your last 5 sticky posts. Add it to sidebars, widgets, or content areas to rotate through and promote older sticky content.
You can fully customize the shortcode output:
- Number of posts shown
- Post excerpt length
- Display date
- Post image
- Custom CSS classes
Refreshing old sticky posts can boost traffic to evergreen content that still deserves the spotlight.
Make Custom Post Types Sticky
By default, only standard blog posts can be set as sticky. But what if you want to pin custom post types like testimonials, case studies or portfolios?
Once again, the Sticky Posts plugin enables this extended functionality.
To add stickiness to custom post types:
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Go to Settings > Sticky Posts – Switch
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Check the box next to any custom post types you want to make sticky.
Now posts from those custom post types can be pinned to the top of their archive pages just like regular posts!
This lets you highlight key custom content – for example, featuring your "Testimonial" custom post type on a testimonials page.
Creative Styling for Sticky Posts
Make your sticky posts stand out visually with some simple CSS styling. This attracts more attention to pinned content.
For example, you can highlight stickies with this CSS:
.sticky {
background: #333;
color: #fff;
padding: 10px;
border-radius: 4px;
}
.sticky a {
color: #fff;
font-weight: bold;
}This gives sticky posts a high-contrast dark style that makes them pop.
Other creative sticky post styling ideas:
- Colored borders
- Box shadows
- Animations (subtle pulse, slide in, etc)
- Icons
- Badges
Styling is limited only by your imagination! A/B test different looks to determine what best fits your brand and converts visitors.
Get More Value From Sticky Posts
As you can see, WordPress sticky posts have many applications beyond just sticking things to your blog home page. Used strategically, sticky content can significantly increase user engagement across your site.
Next time you publish a high-value post, take two seconds to click "Make this post sticky" and pin it to the top. You may be surprised what a difference this simple action makes for its performance!
Which of these sticky post strategies do you plan to try first? Let me know in the comments!
[1] https://www.blogcadre.com/beginners-guide-to-wordpress-sticky-posts-and-how-to-use-them/ [2] https://themeisle.com/blog/must-have-sticky-post-plugins-for-wordpress/
