Want to make your WordPress site stand out while boosting visitor engagement? Adding custom scrollbars can help you achieve both goals.
As an experienced WordPress developer, I have implemented custom scrollbars on multiple client sites. Based on industry research and first-hand experience, creatively designed scrollbars not only establish unique branding but also deliver up to 15% higher user retention rates according to HubSpot [1].
In this comprehensive guide, you‘ll learn:
- The benefits of custom scrollbars with supporting data
- Two easy methods to implement with step-by-step instructions
- Custom scrollbar examples and design ideas
- Comparision between the methods to decide what works best for you
- Tips to fix cross-browser issues
Let‘s get started!
Why Add Custom Scrollbars in WordPress?
Before diving into implementation, let‘s look at some key benefits driving more sites to adopt custom scrollbars:
1. Unique Branding for Your Website
Want to make your site memorable while matching your brand identity? Custom scrollbars allow adding your brand colors to create unique, creative effects that make an impression on visitors.
For example, here is a –red and yellow fiery effect– scrollbar matching an edgy, high-energy brand:
Or you can create –an elegant gold and black– luxury scrollbar for premium brands:
The possibilities are endless!
2. Boost Engagement and Reduce Bounce Rates
Custom scrollbars can boost engagement by over 15% and reduce bounce rates by over 10% according to experts [1].
How? By catching visitor attention and subtly encouraging them to interact and scroll to explore more content before leaving. This leads to longer session durations and more pages viewed per session.
3. Wider Compatibility Than Before
Browser support for scrollbar CSS customization has increased significantly since 2018 after the W3C draft proposal. Most modern browsers allow styling to some extent.
However, there are still issues with mobile/legacy browser support. We will cover common cross-browser problems and solutions later on.
Now that you know the benefits, let‘s check out two quick methods to add custom scrollbars on your WordPress site.
Method 1: Use a Scrollbar Customization Plugin
The simplest approach is to use a…
[ Content continues with details on both methods, code examples, comparison table, design ideas, tips, and concluding summary ]
