PurpleCow Digital Help Centre

Step by step instructions on using widgets for common content

To follow this tutorial, you must first log into your website.

1. What is a Widget

Widgets are useful content areas that are used across the website in various places. The main benefit of widgets is that if you place a Widget Area on multiple pages, if you later decide to change that content, you don’t need to edit each page again to do so. You can just update the widget itself and it will automatically be updated everywhere.

For example, you could create widget areas for:

• a standard contact form
• a list of useful links
• a newsletter signup form
• a list of your social media links.

2. Adding a Widget Area

To add a Widget Area to a page, you must first create the Widget Area itself, as follows:

1. In the left menu, go to Appearance > Widgets.
2. On the right, scroll down until you see a white box labelled “GO Theme Custom Widget Area”.
3. Type in a name for your widget area, then click “Add widget area”. Choose a descriptive name such as “Contact form” or “Useful links”.

Your Widget Area will now appear in the right column, ready for you to add content within.

3. Adding Widgets

To add a widget to a Widget Area, simply click and drag a widget from the list of options on the left half of the page, over to the Widget Areas on the right.

Alternatively, you can click on the name of the widget you want to add, then choose your Widget Area name from the list.

If you’re wanting to add a text box widget to your Widget Area, choose the “Visual Editor” option. The other widgets will be up to you to experiment with, as there are many options available.

4. Using the Widget Area

To insert a Widget Area on your page or post, edit the page or post as normal. Then, in the Content Elements tab at the top of the page builder canvas, find the Widget Area element.

You can either click once on the element to place it at the bottom of the page (then drag it where you like), or click and drag it into position right away.

Next, use the drop-down list to choose the Widget Area that you’d like to display. Repeat for any other pages or posts where this Widget Area should appear.