How to Make Your WooCommerce Shop Pages Full Width: A Beginner’s Guide
Want your WooCommerce shop to feel more modern and visually appealing? One of the easiest ways to achieve this is by making your shop and product pages full width, eliminating those sidebars and allowing your products to take center stage. This guide is designed for beginners, so we’ll break down the process in a clear and simple way.
Why Full Width? Understanding the Benefits
Think about shopping online. Which sites grab your attention? Often, it’s the ones with clean, uncluttered layouts. Full-width shop pages offer several benefits:
- Improved Visual Appeal: Full width provides a more modern and spacious look, making your products stand out. Imagine a beautiful furniture store; wouldn’t you want to showcase your items without visual distractions?
- Enhanced User Experience: Eliminating sidebars can simplify navigation and direct the user’s focus directly on your products. Think about a bakery displaying its cakes – a clean background makes the desserts look more tempting.
- Better Product Presentation: Larger product images mean better detail and a more immersive shopping experience. In a fashion store, full-width allows shoppers to see the details of a garment clearly.
- Mobile Responsiveness: Full-width layouts often adapt better to different screen sizes, providing a more consistent experience on mobile devices. This is crucial as a significant percentage of online shopping happens on mobile!
- Using the WordPress Customizer: Go to Appearance > Customize > Additional CSS. This is the recommended method for simple CSS changes.
- Using a Child Theme: Discover insights on How To Show Woocommerce As Homepage This is the best practice for more extensive CSS modifications. A child theme protects your customizations from being overwritten when the parent theme is updated.
- Replace `#primary` and `#secondary` with the actual selectors from your Discover insights on How To Seperate Attributes In Woocommerce theme. Inspect your page’s HTML using the developer tools.
- The `.woocommerce div#content` selector may need to be adjusted depending on your theme’s specific structure. Check the page’s HTML.
Methods for Achieving Full Width WooCommerce Pages
There are several ways to achieve full-width WooCommerce shop pages. We’ll cover the most common and beginner-friendly options:
#### 1. Using Your Theme’s Settings
This is the easiest and recommended method, if your theme supports it. Many modern WooCommerce-compatible themes have built-in options to control the layout of your pages, including shop and product pages.
Here’s how to check and implement it:
1. Log in to your WordPress Dashboard.
2. Navigate to Appearance > Customize.
3. Look for options like “Layout,” “Page Settings,” “WooCommerce Settings,” or similar. The exact name varies from theme to theme.
4. Within these settings, you should find options to select the page layout. Look for options like “Full Width,” “No Sidebar,” or “100% Width.”
5. Select the “Full Width” option and save your changes.
Example: The popular Astra theme has a dedicated “Layout” section in the customizer. You can easily choose the “Full Width Contained” or “Full Width Stretched” layout option for your WooCommerce pages. The Neve theme offers similar options within its customizer panel under the “Layout” section.
#### 2. Using a Page Builder (Elementor, Beaver Builder, etc.)
If you’re using a page builder like Elementor or Beaver Builder, you have even more control over the layout of your shop and product pages.
Here’s the general process:
1. Edit your WooCommerce Shop page with your chosen page builder. This is usually done by going to Pages > All Pages, finding your Shop page (often named simply “Shop”), and clicking “Edit with [Page Builder Name]”.
2. Change the page layout within the page builder settings. Each page builder has its own interface, but generally, you’ll find options for page layout, template, or content width. Set these to “Full Width” or similar.
3. Customize the design of your shop page using the page builder’s elements. You can add product grids, banners, and other content to create a visually appealing layout.
Example with Elementor:
* Edit the Shop page with Elementor.
* Click the gear icon Discover insights on How To Create A Csv File For Woocommerce in the bottom-left corner to access Page Settings.
* Under “Page Layout”, choose “Elementor Full Width” or “Elementor Canvas”. “Elementor Canvas” removes the header and footer completely.
#### 3. Using Custom CSS (For Advanced Users)
If your theme doesn’t offer built-in options, and you aren’t using a page builder, you can use custom CSS to force your WooCommerce pages to be full width. This method requires some understanding of CSS.
Here’s how:
1. Identify the CSS selectors for the main content area and sidebar. You can use your browser’s developer tools (right-click on the page and select “Inspect”) to find these. Look for the `id` or `class` names of the elements surrounding your content and sidebar. For example, it could be something like `#primary` for the main content area and `#secondary` for the sidebar.
2. Add custom CSS to your theme. You can do this in a few ways:
3. Add the following CSS code, adjusting the selectors to match your theme’s structure:
#primary { /* Adjust ‘#primary’ if needed */
width: 100%;
float: none;
margin-right: 0; /* Remove right margin that might be reserved for the sidebar */
}
#secondary { /* Adjust ‘#secondary’ if needed */
display: none; /* Hide the sidebar */
}
.woocommerce div#content {
width: 100%;
max-width: 100%; /* Adjust to fit your desired width */
}
Important Considerations:
#### 4. Using a Code Snippet (Potentially Risky)
You *can* use code snippets to remove sidebars, but this method is generally not recommended for beginners because it can cause issues if not implemented correctly. Incorrect code can break your site.
<?php /**
Important: Use this method with caution. It’s best to use a plugin like “Code Snippets” to add this code. Always back up your site before adding custom code!
Testing and Troubleshooting
After implementing any of these methods, thoroughly test your shop and product pages on different devices and browsers to ensure they look as expected.
- Clear your browser cache: Sometimes, old cached files can interfere with changes.
- Check for plugin conflicts: Deactivate plugins one by one to see if any are causing the issue.
- Use your browser’s developer tools: Inspect the HTML and CSS to identify any styling conflicts.
Conclusion
Making your WooCommerce shop pages full width is a relatively simple process that can significantly improve the look and feel of your online store. Start by exploring your theme’s built-in options, then consider using a page builder for more advanced customization. If you’re comfortable with code, CSS is a powerful way to achieve the desired layout. By following these steps, you can create a visually appealing and user-friendly shopping experience for your customers. Remember to always back up your site before making any major changes!