Default WordPress Sidebar And How To Deal With It - Semalt Expert

Artem Abgarian, the Semalt Senior Customer Success Manager, says that for many website users, removing WordPress sidebar might seem to be a challenging venture. In this SEO article, different methods through which you can remove or disable this sidebar are present. For most WordPress themes, this is a default configuration which is difficult to adjust. In other cases, different themes might contain complex code structures which might involve numerous get sidebar(); requests.

Firstly, the sidebar comes as a theme addition. This means that it has a PHP file in the root of any theme directory. There are some plugin sidebar and widgets which come from the themes or the plugin installations. In other cases, the web designer can develop some own custom modifications putting them in functions.php.

Disabling the WordPress sidebar

For a WordPress user who may want to disable or move the sidebar, you can go to appearance> widgets >sidebar. From this location, you can be able to set the position of the sidebar on your screen. For instance, it is possible to choose the correct sidebar location. In exceptional cases, the sidebar may remain in the same position. In these cases, removing WordPress sidebar might involve modification of some PHP files. These steps are available in this article, so you need not worry.

Removing WordPress sidebar via theme files

This method can involve changing some of the crucial files of the theme. This may not be the best method to follow but can make futuristic changes for the theme especially if you are planning on using the theme in future. Always remember that updates can override the theme changes. As a result, it is essential to include a child-based theme to your current theme. In this guideline, the installation of child based themes is an assumption, and so you should know how to install them.

To make these adjustments, navigate to Appearance > Editor. On this page, go to the right-hand side of the screen and go to single.php, page.php and front-page.php files. From this menu, you can be able to find the get sidebar (); code. Remove this code entirely from the sidebar loading. This adjustment should be able to fix the sidebar issue.

Remove any other files here which might be specific to the get sidebar(); request. You can use a notepad and search for any lines which contain the get sidebar(); code and remove it. These are the items present on the sidebar which forces its loading even when you have disabled them.

Conclusion

Removing WordPress sidebar on different themes can be a difficult task. This guideline can help you disable any WordPress sidebars. Similarly, WordPress might. This modification is possible with minimal developer knowledge. You can be able to look through your code and look for the code which tries to trigger a get sidebar(); request. In the case whereby the code of your website seems complex, you may need to contact a web developer. They can help you find the correct lines of code which you need to remove to get the entire process working.