# Boost Your WooCommerce Sales: Adding Sidebars to Your Product Category Pages
Want to improve your WooCommerce store’s user experience and boost sales? Adding sidebars to your product category pages is a simple yet powerful strategy. Sidebars offer valuable real estate on your website, allowing you to strategically display information that enhances the shopping journey and encourages conversions. This article guides you through the process, even if you’re a complete newbie to coding.
Why Use Sidebars on WooCommerce Category Pages?
Think of your product category pages as shop windows. A well-designed window displays not just the products but also related information that grabs attention. Sidebars on category pages serve this purpose. They can:
- Improve navigation: Offer quick access to filters, related categories, and popular products. Imagine a clothing store – a sidebar with filters for size, color, and brand significantly improves the shopping experience.
- Boost sales: Display targeted promotions, best-sellers, or upsells related to the current category. For example, a sidebar showcasing “frequently bought together” items on a “Jeans” category page can significantly increase your average order value.
- Enhance user experience: Provide relevant information such as customer testimonials, FAQs, or a contact form, improving overall engagement. This builds trust and encourages customers to spend more time on your site.
- Increase engagement: Include social media feeds or blog post snippets related to the current category, increasing website engagement and driving traffic.
- WooCommerce Sidebar Manager: This plugin allows you to easily assign different sidebars to different pages, including product categories. It’s user-friendly and typically requires no coding.
- Elementor: While primarily a page builder, Elementor allows for extensive customization, including the addition of sidebars and widgets to your category pages.
- Other similar plugins: Search the WordPress plugin directory for “WooCommerce sidebar” to find other options that might fit your specific needs.
Methods for Adding Sidebars to WooCommerce Category Pages
There are several ways to add sidebars to your WooCommerce category pages, ranging from simple plugin solutions to custom code modifications. Let’s explore the most common approaches:
1. Using WooCommerce Plugins
The easiest way is often the best. Several plugins provide this functionality without requiring coding knowledge. Popular choices include:
2. Customizing Your Theme’s `archive-product.php` file (Advanced)
This method requires some coding knowledge and understanding of WordPress theme structure. Proceed with caution, and always back up your files before making any changes.
If your theme doesn’t offer a simple way to add sidebars to category pages, you might need to edit the `archive-product.php` file. This file is responsible for the display of product category archives. You’ll need to locate the `sidebar` area within this file and add code to display your sidebar widget area.
The exact code will depend on your theme, but here’s a general example of how to include a sidebar using the WordPress `get_sidebar()` function:
<?php /**
get_header(); ?>
<?php
/
* Hook: woocommerce_archive_description.
*
* @hooked woocommerce_taxonomy_archive_description – 10
* @hooked woocommerce_product_archive_description – 10
*/
do_action( ‘woocommerce_archive_description’ );
?>
<?php
/
* Hook: woocommerce_before_shop_loop.
*
* @hooked woocommerce_output_all_notices – 10
* @hooked woocommerce_result_count – 20
* @hooked woocommerce_catalog_ordering – 30
*/
do_action( ‘woocommerce_before_shop_loop’ );
?>
<?php
/
* Hook: woocommerce_after_shop_loop.
*
* @hooked woocommerce_pagination – 10
*/
do_action( ‘woocommerce_after_shop_loop’ );
?>
Remember to replace `get_sidebar();` with the correct function name if your theme uses a different convention. You’ll likely also need to create a sidebar.php file in your theme’s folder to define the content of your sidebar.
Conclusion
Adding sidebars to your WooCommerce category pages is a valuable SEO and UX enhancement. Whether you choose a plugin or custom code, the benefits – increased sales, improved navigation, and a better customer experience – are well worth the effort. Remember to prioritize user experience and test different approaches to see what works best for your specific store and audience.
