The theme put a narrow column down the right of every page: a search box, a list of recent posts nobody reads, an archive by month from three years ago. On your blog it is harmless. On the services page and the contact page it squeezes the part that matters into two thirds of the screen.
How you remove the sidebar in WordPress depends on where your theme stores the layout, and you rarely want it gone everywhere. Most themes let you drop it for the whole site, for one type of content or for a single page, and the same settings let you add a sidebar back where it earns its space.
First work out what you are looking at
A few quick checks save time:
- Where does it appear? Only on blog posts, on every page, or on archives and search results? Themes often set the layout separately for each.
- Which theme type is it? Under Appearance, an Editor item means a block theme; Customize and Widgets mean a classic theme. The guide to WordPress header, footer and menu areas goes into the difference.
- Is it a theme sidebar or something on the page? If the column only appears on one page, open that page in the editor. It may be a Columns block or a page builder section, not a sidebar at all.
- What happens on a phone? On narrow screens most themes move the sidebar below the content. That matters when you decide whether to keep it.
When a sidebar helps, and when it gets in the way
A sidebar does useful work on a blog: links to categories, a short note about who writes the posts, a sign-up form, a button to your main service. Readers who finish a post have somewhere to go next.
It works against you on pages built to get one action: a service page, a landing page for an ad, a booking or contact page. A column of unrelated links pulls attention away from the button you want pressed, and it narrows the space for headings and images. On a phone it adds a long tail of widgets after the content.
A common arrangement for a small business site is no sidebar on pages, a sidebar on blog posts and archives, and nothing at all on landing pages. Choices like this are a small part of the wider routine in our guide on how to manage a WordPress website, which is worth a look if you are new to running the site.
Remove the sidebar in WordPress across the whole site (classic themes)
Most classic themes have a layout setting in the Customizer.
- Go to Appearance → Customize.
- Look for a panel called Layout, Sidebar, General or Blog. The name varies between themes.
- Find the default sidebar layout and choose No Sidebar, Full Width or similar. Many themes let you set it separately for pages, single posts and archives; set each to what suits it.
- Watch the preview change, then publish.
Some themes also have a content width setting next to the layout options. Without a sidebar, very long lines of text become tiring to read on a wide screen, so a narrower or “contained” content width often looks better than stretching text across the full window.
Removing it from a single page
For one page, you usually have two routes, and which works depends on the theme.
- The theme’s layout panel in the editor. Themes such as Astra and GeneratePress add their own panel to the page editor with a sidebar or layout choice. Open the page, look in the settings sidebar on the right, or below the content, and pick no sidebar for this page. Update the page.
- The page template. In the page’s settings panel on the right there is a Template option, though its exact position has moved between WordPress versions. Many themes include a Full Width or No Sidebar template. Choose it and update.
Page templates have more uses than this, such as pages without a title or a blank canvas for a landing page. Our guide to WordPress page templates and full-width layouts covers them in more detail.
Block themes: the sidebar is part of a template
Many block themes have no sidebar at all by default. Where one exists, it is not a separate theme feature: the template is built with Columns or a Row, and one of the columns holds the sidebar, often as its own template part.
- To remove it from every page, go to Appearance → Editor → Templates, open the template in question (Pages, Single Posts and so on), select the sidebar column in List View and delete it. You may also want to remove the outer Columns block so the content uses the normal width. Save.
- To remove it from some pages only, add a second template with no sidebar column, then switch each of those pages over to it from the Template option while editing the page.
- To undo, use the template’s Reset option to return to the theme’s original. If the Site Editor is still unfamiliar, read our guide to Site Editor templates and template parts first.
Page builders
If the page is built with Elementor, the theme’s sidebar may still sit beside the builder content. Elementor’s page settings include a Page Layout option with choices such as Elementor Full Width (keeps the theme header and footer, drops the sidebar) and Elementor Canvas (a blank page with no header or footer at all). Full Width is usually what you want for a normal page. Other builders have their own equivalent, often called a full-width or blank template.
How to add a sidebar where you want one
Adding a sidebar is the same settings in reverse, with one catch: the theme has to support it.
- Classic theme: set the layout for posts or archives to left or right sidebar in the Customizer, or pick a sidebar template for one page. Then fill it under Appearance → Widgets. Our guide to using WordPress widgets explains widget areas and what to put in them.
- Block theme: some block themes ship an extra template that includes a sidebar. If yours does not, build one: in a new template, add a Columns block with two columns, put the Post Content block in the wider column and the blocks you want in the narrow one. Saving the narrow column as a template part lets you reuse it in other templates.
Keep it short. Three or four useful items work better than ten. A sidebar packed with widgets also pushes a lot of extra content under every post on phones.
What can go wrong
- Removing every widget does not always remove the sidebar. Some themes switch to full width when the sidebar area is empty. Others leave an empty column. Use the layout setting rather than emptying the widget area.
- Hiding it with CSS. A rule that hides the sidebar can leave the content at its narrow width with a blank gap beside it, and the widgets still load. Use the theme’s setting instead.
- The sidebar is gone but the content is still narrow. The page is probably on a template or layout with a fixed content width. Check the template and the theme’s container or content width options.
- A widget you depended on vanished. If the sidebar held a sign-up form or a contact button, move it into the page or the footer before removing the sidebar. If widgets disappear when you did not intend it, our guide to widgets that are not showing works through the causes.
Frequently asked questions
Will removing the sidebar delete my widgets?
No. Changing the layout only stops the sidebar from being displayed. The widgets stay saved in their widget area, so if you switch the sidebar back on later they reappear. In a block theme, deleting the sidebar column from a template does remove those blocks from that template, so a template reset or revision is the way back.
Why is there still a sidebar on my blog posts after I removed it from pages?
Most themes treat pages, single posts and archives as separate layouts. Removing the sidebar from pages leaves the other two unchanged. Look for separate post and archive layout options in the Customizer, or a separate Single Posts template in the Site Editor.
Can I have the sidebar on the left instead of the right?
Many classic themes offer left and right sidebar layouts in the same setting that turns it off. In a block theme you can drag the sidebar column to the other side of the Columns block in the template. On phones it will usually still appear below the content.
Can I keep the sidebar on desktop but hide it on phones?
Some themes and page builders have a setting to hide the sidebar on small screens. Where they do not, the sidebar normally drops below the content on phones rather than disappearing. In that case, keep it short, so phone readers reach the footer without scrolling past a long tail of widgets they did not ask for.
Some themes hard-code the sidebar, and some custom themes have no layout settings at all. If you need different layouts for pages and posts and the theme will not give them to you, our WordPress theme customisation work can add the options without editing files an update would overwrite.
Next in this series: How to Add an Announcement Bar in WordPress
