How to Remove WordPress Sidebar [8 Easy Methods]

Do you want to customize your website design for a cleaner look by removing the WordPress sidebar? Read on to know how you can achieve it.

With any theme you use for your WordPress website, there’s a good chance that the default layout includes a sidebar for your website.

While this sidebar is useful for displaying additional information on the left or right side or underneath your main website content, it can be distracting and take up space on your website pages.

Not to mention, they might not even be necessary for your entire website or certain pages.

So, it is important to know how you can remove this sidebar for a more focused and engaging experience. There are multiple ways to remove WordPress sidebar in for your website or specific pages, and you can do so in just a few minutes.

In this blog, we’ll discuss the pros and cons of having a sidebar on your website, along with 8 easy methods to remove sidebar widgets in WordPress.

What is a Sidebar in WordPress?

A WordPress sidebar is a space for a widget to display extra information or a navigation menu alongside the main content of your website. It is typically a vertical column on the left or right side of your website page.

Sidebars are a key part of a website layout and are useful to display additional content on your website apart from the main content.

Many WordPress themes, such as Nexter by POSIMYTH Innovations, also let you add different widget styles for your entire website, along with pages, displays, and blog posts.

Pros and Cons of WordPress Sidebar

WordPress sidebar is a widget-ready area that can be added to enhance the user’s website experience. While they can help add value to your website content, they can also be disadvantageous depending on how you use them.

Here’s a quick look at its pros and cons.

Pros	Cons
Sidebars add extra information beyond your main content.	Excessive sidebars clutter and hinder navigation.
Can be used for navigation menus, contact forms, or CTAs.	Mobile responsiveness may push sidebars to the bottom, affecting user experience.
Provides greater design flexibility by placing sidebars strategically.	Overloaded sidebars impact performance and page load times negatively.

How to Remove WordPress Sidebar (8 Methods)

There are various simple ways to remove sidebar from wordpress page. Here are 8 easy ways to do so.

Method 1. Removing Sidebar Using WordPress Theme Settings

The process of removing the sidebar from WordPress can typically depend on the theme you’re using. Many of the WordPress themes have built-in settings to remove the sidebar.

Moreover, depending on your theme, you might even be able to delete sidebars from individual pages or posts.

To know if your WordPress theme allows you to remove the sidebar, go to Appearance > Customize.

Next, click on General > Sidebar. Here, choose No Sidebar as the default layout and click on Publish to make the change on the live website.

Creating your first WordPress site? Select a theme that enhances functionality and performance. Check the 20 Best WordPress themes for Elementor.

Method 2. Removing Sidebar Using a Plugin

WordPress plugins make it fairly easy to add tons of unique features and functions to your website.

Safe to say, there’s a plugin for almost everything, even when you want to remove the sidebar in WordPress. A good example is the Widget Disable plugin that lets you delete the sidebar easily.

To get the plugin, go to Plugins > Add New on your WordPress dashboard. Search for the Widget Disable plugin, install it, and activate it.

Once activated, follow these steps to remove the sidebar from the WordPress page-

• Go to Appearance > Disable Widgets on the WordPress dashboard.

• On the next screen, click Select All to check all the options and hit Save Changes.

This will remove the sidebar from your WordPress website.

Looking to remove unnecessary widgets from your website for enhanced performance? Learn How to Disable and Hide Unused Elementor Widgets.

Method 3. Removing the Sidebar Using Full Site Editing (Block-Based Themes Only)

Using a block-based theme for your website, like Divi or Neve FSE, you can delete the sidebar with Full Site Editing and the block editor.

• Go to Appearance > Editor to launch the block editor of your theme. In your block theme, you can remove the sidebar from any page or post.

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• For this, select Templates, Pages, or Patterns from the menu on the left and click on the particular template or page from where you want to eliminate the sidebar.

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• A preview of your design will appear; click the small pencil icon on the left to edit the template.

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• Select the sidebar you want to remove and click on the three dots in the toolbar that appear.
• Here, click on Remove Column.

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This is a fairly easy and simple method to remove the WordPress sidebar on your website; however, it doesn’t work with every theme.

Method 4. Removing Sidebar From WordPress via FTP

If you have coding knowledge and are comfortable taking a technical approach, you can easily remove the sidebar from your website via FTP (File Transfer Protocol).

This method allows you to access and modify a website’s files and offers great control over the website’s functionality.

Follow these steps to remove the sidebar from WordPress via FTP-

• Connect to your FTP.
• Go to Database and click on public_html file.

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• In the public_html folder, navigate to wp-content.

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• Click on themes and select your current theme.
• Now you’ll see all your template files, such as archive.php, home.php, page.php, and index.php.
• Delete the following line of code from each template file – <?php get_sidebar(); ?>
• If your website has multiple sidebars, look for similar code and delete it.
• Hit save once you’ve deleted all the code from each template.

You can now see the changes on your website.

Method 5. Removing Sidebar on WordPress From Static Page

Many WordPress themes feature a default full-width template for a static page. These templates don’t include the sidebar on either side of the content.

So, in cases where you want to remove the sidebar only from a single static page instead of the entire website, you can use a full-width template to do so.

This is an extremely simple method, as switching the template takes only a few minutes.

To do this, go to Pages and select the static page from where you want to remove the sidebar from the WordPress dashboard.

In the Page attributes section on the right, navigate to the Template drop-down menu and select Full Width. Alternatively, you can see the Template section directly on the right tab.

Click on Update or Publish, and the sidebar will be removed from the website.

However, if your WordPress theme does not have a full-width template by default, you can create one independently.

Here’s how to do it-

A quick note before proceeding: We recommend creating a child theme before adding custom code to your site. This way, changes in the child theme won’t overwrite the parent theme, preserving customizations during updates.

• Create a new file in a plain text editor and name it full-width.php. Save this file on your desktop.
• Use an FTP client to connect your hosting account to your website.
• Find the /wp-content/themes/your-theme
• Find the php file and open it in a plain text editor.
• Copy the code in this file and paste it into your full-width.php
• Find this line of code and delete it- <?php get_sidebar(); ?>
• This will remove the sidebar from your new full-width template.
• Save the changes and upload the full-width.php file to your child theme via the FTP client.
• Now, you will have the full-width page template option without the sidebar.

Method 6. Removing Sidebar on WordPress from Blog Post Page

Most blog page templates in popular WordPress themes typically include sidebars by default. Here’s a simple process to remove it-

• On your WordPress dashboard, go to Settings > Reading.

• Under Your homepage displays on the next screen, click on A static page. Select the blog page from where you want to remove the sidebar from the drop-down menu and click on Save Changes.

• Now, go to Pages > All Pages.
• Find your blog page.
• Navigate to the Page Attributes box and select Full Width in the Template
• If your theme doesn’t have a full-width template, create one manually by following the steps mentioned under the previous method.

Want to create a stunning blog page for your website? Here’s a step-by-step guide on How to Create a Custom Elementor Blog Post Template.

Method 7. Removing Sidebar on WordPress from a Single Post

You can also remove the sidebar from a single post on WordPress easily from its built-in settings rather than the entire blog page.

Follow these steps to get started-

• Go to Posts on your WordPress dashboard.
• Select the blog post you want to eliminate the sidebar from.

• Go to the Post Attributes meta box on the right side.
• From the Template drop-down menu, choose Full Width.
• Alternatively, find the Templates section on the meta box on the right.

This will easily remove the sidebar from your chosen blog post.

Method 8. Completely Delete the Sidebar from WordPress Website

This last method allows you to completely remove the sidebar from all pages and posts of your WordPress website. It involves editing your WordPress theme, so you must have the technical knowledge to complete the process.

However, before you start, you should back up your entire WordPress website and use a child theme to avoid making permanent changes to the parent theme.

Any changes to the child theme will not overwrite the parent theme, and you will not lose any customizations after the theme update.

Now, to remove the sidebar from your WordPress website entirely, you’ll need to access your theme files directly.

For this, you can either connect to your website via an FTP client like FileZilla, use your hosting provider’s file manager, or access the files from the WordPress dashboard (Appearance > Editor).

For this blog, we’ll consider the first option-

• Once connected to your website via an FTP client, go to /wp-content/themes/your-theme.
• Herein, you’ll find that your theme has various templates. You must copy and edit all the templates that include a sidebar.
• You may want to edit PHP like archive.php, index.php, single.php, and page.php files, and so on.
• Copy these template codes in a plain text editor one by one and delete this line of code from each- <?php get_sidebar(); ?>
• Since this code’s function is to add a sidebar to your website, deleting it from each template will remove the sidebar entirely.
• Additionally, if your theme has multiple sidebars, look for a code with the ‘sidebar’ name mentioned in them, like this- <?php get_sidebar(‘footer-widget-area’); ?>

Now save and upload these files to your WordPress hosting account and check your website to see the changes in action.

Wrapping Up

Although sidebars can be a valuable addition to your website, in some cases, having too many sidebars might clutter your website design, distract the visitor, and affect your mobile website experience.

Hence, it makes sense to remove the sidebar from the website.

You can follow any of the methods mentioned in this blog to easily delete these sidebars and achieve a good-looking, clutter-free website.

And if you’re looking to further enhance your WordPress website in Elementor with some unique features, tons of design options, and flexible customizations, install The Plus Addons for Elementor plugin.

This user-friendly plugin features an extensive library of 120+ unique widgets to help you enhance the functionality of your Elementor editor and create better websites.

With support for popular themes, multi-lingual support, and an exciting range of features, The Plus Addons lets you do more for your website without the need for coding.

Get this all-in-one Elementor plugin at a starting price of $39/year. You can also check out the lifetime plan if you wish to pay once.

Further Read: Looking for a reliable hosting provider for your Elementor site? Check the 8 Best WordPress Hosting for Elementor and build a quality website.

FAQs on how to remove the sidebar in WordPress