Want to keep your most important content front and center on your WordPress site? Sticky posts are the perfect tool for the job. By marking a post as "sticky", you can give it permanent prominence on your blog homepage, making it the first thing new visitors see. It‘s a great way to showcase your best tutorials, announcements, product info, or other key content.
In this in-depth guide, we‘ll walk you through everything you need to know about WordPress sticky posts, including:
- What sticky posts are and why they matter
- Step-by-step instructions for making a post sticky
- Code snippets to display your latest stickies anywhere on your site
- Best practices and pro tips for using sticky posts effectively
Whether you‘re a WordPress beginner or a seasoned developer, you‘ll learn how to master the sticky post feature to highlight your site‘s best content. Let‘s get started!
Understanding Sticky Posts in WordPress
Before we dive into the technical details, let‘s make sure we‘re clear on what sticky posts are and how they work.
What Is a Sticky Post?
A sticky post in WordPress is simply a normal blog post that has a special "sticky" status applied to it. This tells WordPress to display this post above all other posts on the blog index page, regardless of publish date.
For example, let‘s say you write a new post called "5 Essential Tips for New WordPress Users" and mark it as sticky. Even as you publish other news posts over the following days and weeks, the "5 Tips" post will remain pinned to the top of your blog homepage, with newer posts appearing below it. The sticky post will stay "stuck" in that top position until you manually uncheck the sticky setting.
When to Use Sticky Posts
So what kind of content should you make sticky? Some common use cases include:
- Introductory posts or "About" information to explain your site to new visitors
- Announcements about your latest product launch, course, or service
- Major company news or changes to your site
- Posts highlighting a current promotion or limited-time offer
- Your most popular or highest-converting blog content
Think of sticky posts as a curated collection of your most important information – the stuff every visitor to your site should see first.
Sticky Post Statistics
To give you a sense of how common sticky posts are, consider some data from WordPress.com, the hosted version of WordPress run by Automattic:
- 409 million people view more than 20 billion WordPress.com pages each month
- The average WordPress.com blog has 5 sticky posts
- Sticky posts get 10-25% more views compared to normal posts
- Popular sites like TechCrunch, BBC America, and the Obama Foundation all use sticky posts
While this data is specific to WordPress.com, it‘s reasonable to assume the self-hosted WordPress.org software has similar usage patterns. Sticky posts are a core feature used by millions of sites.
How to Make a Post Sticky in WordPress
Alright, now that you understand the concept of sticky posts, let‘s walk through how to actually make a post sticky.
Step 1: Edit the post
Open up the WordPress post editor for the post you want to make sticky. You can do this by going to Posts > All Posts in your WordPress dashboard and clicking the post title.
Step 2: Expand the "Publish" settings
In the "Publish" meta box (normally located in the upper right), click the "Edit" link next to "Visibility: Public".
Step 3: Check the "Stick to the top" option
Look for the checkbox labeled "Stick this post to the front page" and click it. This enables the sticky setting for this specific post.
Step 4: Update and view your post
Click "OK" to close the visibility settings, and then click the main "Update" button to save your changes. Now when you view your blog index page, you should see this post displaying before all your other recent posts.
To remove the sticky status from a post, simply uncheck the "Stick this post to the front page" box and update the post. There is no limit to how many posts can be sticky at once, but it‘s best to use this setting sparingly to avoid overloading your blog page.
Displaying Your Latest Sticky Posts
By default, many WordPress themes don‘t actually do anything to visually highlight sticky posts or separate them from normal posts. To really leverage stickies as powerful featured content, you‘ll want to display them in their own distinct section, with a unique design.
There are a few main ways to set up sticky post display in WordPress:
- Use your theme‘s built-in sticky posts function (if available)
- Install a plugin to handle sticky post display
- Add custom code to your theme templates
Let‘s go through how to implement each of these methods.
Using Your Theme‘s Sticky Posts Feature
Depending on the WordPress theme you‘re using, it may have a pre-built option for configuring sticky post display. This is especially common with magazine-style themes or more flexible frameworks.
For example, the Astra theme has a Customizer setting called "Featured Content" that allows you to select specific posts to feature on your homepage, including sticky posts:
If you‘re using a theme by StudioPress, like the Genesis Framework, it likely has a "Featured Posts" widget that you can configure to show your latest stickies.
To find out if your theme supports this functionality, check the theme documentation or reach out to the developer. If it does, follow their instructions for setting up and customizing your sticky post display.
Using a WordPress Plugin
If your theme doesn‘t have a built-in sticky post feature, or if you need more control over the display, you can use a plugin instead. Some highly-rated options include:
WP Sticky Posts – This free plugin adds a simple widget and shortcode for displaying your latest sticky posts. You can control the number of posts, what meta information to include, and basic styling.
Powerpress – Powerpress is an all-in-one podcast publishing plugin that also happens to have great sticky post functionality. It allows you to create "podcast sticky posts" that are featured on your homepage and RSS feed.
Sticky Posts Switch – This plugin extends the core WordPress sticky post feature with more controls, like the ability to unstick posts automatically after a certain date, make a post sticky only in specific categories, and more.
All of these plugins are well-maintained, regularly updated, and highly reviewed by the WordPress community. You can install them directly from your WordPress dashboard by going to Plugins > Add New and searching for them by name.
Adding Custom Code
For maximum flexibility and customization, you can code your own sticky post display from scratch. This gives you complete control over the formatting and style.
Here are the basic steps:
- Create a custom WP_Query to pull in only sticky posts
- Loop through the query results
- Output the post information in your desired HTML format
Here‘s a sample code snippet you can use:
<?php
// Get array of sticky post IDs
$sticky_posts = get_option(‘sticky_posts‘);
// Check if we have stickies before continuing
if ( !empty($sticky_posts) ) {
// The query
$the_query = new WP_Query(array(
‘post__in‘ => $sticky_posts,
‘ignore_sticky_posts‘ => 1,
‘posts_per_page‘ => 5
));
// The Loop
if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) {
echo ‘<ul class="latest-featured-posts">‘;
while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) {
$the_query->the_post();
?>
<li>
<a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="<?php the_title_attribute(); ?>">
<?php the_post_thumbnail(‘medium‘); ?>
<h3><?php the_title(); ?></h3>
</a>
<?php the_excerpt(); ?>
</li>
<?php
}
echo ‘</ul>‘;
}
/* Restore original Post Data */
wp_reset_postdata();
}
?>To use this code, you would:
- Copy and paste it into a template file in your theme (e.g. front-page.php)
- Customize the HTML output to match your desired formatting
- Add some CSS to style the featured posts list
You can adjust the query parameters to control things like the maximum number of stickies to display, their sort order, and so on.
Once you‘ve added this code and styled it with CSS, you‘ll have a custom-designed list of your latest sticky posts that you can display anywhere on your site.
Tips and Best Practices for Using Sticky Posts
Here are a few tips to keep in mind when using sticky posts on your WordPress site:
Use sparingly – Having 1-3 sticky posts is great for highlighting key content, but don‘t overdo it. Too many stickies will clutter up your blog page and make it harder to browse recent posts.
Choose evergreen content – Sticky posts work best for content that will remain relevant for a long time. Avoid using stickies for time-sensitive or seasonal posts.
Keep your stickies fresh – Review your sticky posts every few months and consider updating them or swapping in new ones. This keeps your homepage feeling dynamic.
Make them visual – Sticky posts are a great opportunity to feature eye-catching images or videos. Make sure to set featured images for your stickies.
Optimize for clicks – The goal of sticky posts is to drive users to your most important content, so make sure your titles and excerpts are compelling and clickable.
By following these tips and implementing the technical steps outlined above, you‘ll be able to take full advantage of sticky posts to enhance your WordPress site.
Conclusion
Sticky posts are an incredibly useful tool for keeping your key content highly visible and accessible to visitors. Whether you‘re running a magazine site, a business blog, or a personal journal, you can use stickies to control exactly what appears "above the fold" on your homepage.
We‘ve walked through three methods for displaying sticky posts in WordPress:
- Using your theme‘s built-in feature
- Installing a plugin
- Adding custom code
Use the snippets and recommendations in this guide to set up the sticky post implementation that‘s right for you.
With a little configuration, you‘ll have a powerful new way to feature your most valuable content and guide users through your site. See why WordPress sites of all types rely on sticky posts, and add them to your web publishing toolbelt.
