Have you ever tried to place your beloved image on the sidebar of your site? WordPress makes it quite simple and effortless to add an image to your sidebar. Now we will share with you 4 methods to do it and you may apply any of them that you think is the easiest and most suitable with your site. Let’s take a look!
Add an Image to WordPress Sidebar Using Image Widget
This way takes the first position of all for its simplicity. It is basic, and you do not need to be so technical to manage it. Image is a default widget in WordPress allowing you to display an image anywhere.
Here is how to add an image to the Sidebar using the Image widget:
- Go to Appearance > Widgets page and add an Image widget to the Primary Sidebar widget area.
- Configure the widget by giving a title (optional) and adding an image. You can upload the image from your device, pick one from your Media Library, or add one from another website by using that image URL.
- Upon adding an image, you can link it to a URL of another image, a page, a post, etc.
- Click Save and go back to your site enjoying the new change.
Add an Image to WordPress Sidebar Using Text Widget
This default WordPress Text widget enables you to add media – image, image gallery, audio or video – to various places in your site. By using the widget, not only can you add an image to the sidebar, but the widget also allows you to modify the image with a custom HTML or text with formatting.
Follow these steps to add an image to the sidebar using the Text widget:
- Go to Appearance > Widgets page and add a Text widget to the Primary Sidebar widget area.
- Configure the widget by giving a title (optional), adding an image (clicking Add Media button), adding text, text with a link, and/or other elements if you’d like.
- Click Save. That’s it!
Add an Image to WordPress Sidebar Using Custom HTML Widget
Though you can add custom HTML to an image or another kinds of media with the Text widget, in some cases, you may need to use a Custom HTML widget to work with advanced HTML or formatting.
Perform the steps below to decorate your sidebar with an awesome image.
- Go to Media > Library, select the image you are about to add to the sidebar and get its URL for step 4. You can also use the URL of an image on another site/page.
- Go to Appearance > Widgets page and add a Custom HTML widget to the Primary Sidebar widget area.
- Configure the widget by giving a title (optional) and importing a HTML code snippet as shown below into the Content box.
- Replace each highlighted part in the code with your details.
- Click Save. Done!
Here are different code snippets for different cases:
- If you just add a standard image: <img src=”your image url” alt=”your image description” />
- If you’d like to add an image linking to another page or website: <a href=”url of another page or site“><img src=”your image url” alt=”your image description” /></a>
- If you’d like to add an image that links to the original, full-size image: <a href=”your original, full-size image url“><img src=”your image url” alt=”your image description” /></a>
Add an Image to WordPress Sidebar Using a Plugin
This way may be less favored, as website owners tend to use as fewer plugins as possible to avoid potential risks for their site. However, we’d recommend Image Widget plugin for its reliability.
Image Widget plugin offers you a simple interface and more advanced options than the WordPress default Image widget.
Following is how to add an image to the sidebar using the Image Widget plugin:
- Install and activate the Image Widget plugin. If you are new to this, you may want to see our step by step guide on plugin installation here.
- Go to Appearance > Widgets page and add an Image Widget to the Primary Sidebar widget area.
- Configure the widget by selecting an image and then adding a title, URL and description, etc. for the image.
- Click Save when you finish configuration.
Now return to your site front end and enjoy the new look of the sidebar with the newly-added image.
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