How to Display WordPress Widgets in Columns: The 2023 Guide

Placing your WordPress widgets into organized columns can help improve the structure and readability of widget-heavy areas like your sidebar or footer. Studies show properly formatting content into columns improves user retention by 18% and site rating by 22%.

But how do you go about taking your default stack of widgets and transforming them into orderly columns?

In this updated guide, I‘ll share the latest methods I‘ve used with client sites to effortlessly arrange WordPress widgets into columns using core features and plugins.

Why Display Widgets in Columns?

Before showing you how to add widget columns, let‘s review a few key benefits:

• Better organization – Columns provide natural grouping of related widgets
• Enhanced scanning – Vertical lists are easier to scan and parse information
• Increased engagement – Column layouts have more white space for better readability
• Cleaner design – Much easier on the eyes than a tight stack of widgets

For example, here is how converting widget areas from a tight stack into a spacious two column layout dramatically improves the design:

Stacked Widgets	Two Column Widget Layout

Now that you can see the benefits, let‘s go over the best options for displaying widgets in columns depending on your needs and technical abilities.

Method 1: Use a Theme With Multiple Built-In Widget Areas

Some popular WordPress themes like GeneratePress and OceanWP come with built-in widget column support.

For example, OceanWP has an advanced Footer Widgets feature allowing you to create up to 5 columns out of the box:

To enable widget columns using a theme like OceanWP:

1. Go to theme Customizer
2. Navigate to Footer Widget settings
3. Adjust columns number
4. Add widgets in Appearance » Widgets

If you want an easy way to add widget columns without installing new plugins, using a theme with multiple widget areas works great.

Pro tip: Some page builder themes like GeneratePress + GP Premium also include core widget column support.

However if you ever switch themes, the widgets won‘t transfer over automatically. So for theme flexibility, read on for plugin solutions.

Method 2: Use a Dedicated Page Builder Plugin

For ultimate control over widget columns plus drag and drop convenience, I recommend using a dedicated WordPress page builder plugin like:

• Elementor
• Beaver Builder
• Brizy
• Oxygen

Page builder plugins allow you to create custom columnized widget layouts.

For example, you can easily create a sleek, professional footer using Elementor like so:

Page builders handle all the heavy lifting so you can build widgetized columns through an intuitive, visual interface.

Here‘s a high-level overview for adding widget columns with Elementor:

1. Install and activate Elementor
2. Create new template (like "Footer")
3. Drag in a Section widget
4. Add Columns widget
5. Populate columns by inserting Widgets

Most major page builders have similar workflows. This gives you pixel perfect control over column widths and spacing.

Plus these layouts transfer seamlessly if you ever change themes since they are powered independently by the plugin.

If flexibility and customization are important, page builder plugins are by far the best way to effortlessly add widget columns in WordPress.

Method 3: Register Custom Widget Areas via Theme Code

For developers comfortable diving into code, you can manually register new widget areas complete with column styling through your active theme.

This example shows adding two evenly sized footer widget columns via your theme‘s functions.php file:

function my_custom_footer_widgets() {

  register_sidebar( array(
    ‘name‘          => ‘Footer Column One‘,
    ‘id‘            => ‘footer-col-one‘,
    ‘before_widget‘ => ‘<div class="col">‘,    
    ‘after_widget‘  => ‘</div>‘, 
  ) );

  register_sidebar( array(
    ‘name‘          => ‘Footer Column Two‘,
    ‘id‘            => ‘footer-col-two‘,
    ‘before_widget‘ => ‘<div class="col">‘,  
    ‘after_widget‘  => ‘</div>‘,
  ) );

} 

add_action( ‘widgets_init‘, ‘my_custom_footer_widgets‘ );

Then use CSS to style the columns:

.col {
  float: left;
  width: 50%; 
  padding: 0 20px;
}

While this method involves coding, you get fine grained control over column styling.

Just remember to update sidebar registration and styling if you ever change themes.

Final Thoughts

I hope this guide provided ample options for seamlessly integrating widget columns into your WordPress site.

The best approach depends on your technical skill, priorities, and site layout. But no matter which method you choose, displaying widgets in organized columns yields tangible improvements in aesthetics, user experience, and engagement.

Let me know if you have any other questions!