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Oh, the sidebar on blog posts. Is it still worthwhile to have one? Or should we just remove the sidebar completely? Do people even see it? The resounding answer is and has been for a while, is that right sidebar blindness and avoidance is a thing.
But what can we do and does it even matter? Like everything it starts with what’s the point of the blog to begin with. For example, my blog makes money through some advertising, sponsored articles, sponsored links, and affiliate marketing.
I do offer some consulting services on truly organic inbound leads, but it’s not an active endeavor. Regardless, the content I create and have created is a major part of any success I have achieved. But do sidebars help? So let’s look at the role of sidebars and what the options are.
The traditional sidebar on the right
This is still common today even over a decade after right sidebar blindness became known. The sidebar full of all kinds of stuff is on the right. Even my homepage has a sidebar on the right.
It’s mostly for show and doesn’t really drive much revenue. There are ads and links to my books, but few people click on those and even fewer buy from those.
But showing off that I’m a judge for the Content Marketing Awards certainly is a public relations play.
Sidebar on the left
B2B publishers, of course, rely on ad revenue, and when I was a chief content officer in publishing, we quickly moved the sidebar to the left. So people basically have to look at it before reading the content they actually want to read. Here’s an example of how that looks.
Now, in this example that’s getting quite busy, but it’s probably still better than on the right. When I moved into B2B tech, I continued keeping the sidebar on the left though less cluttered. Here’s an example of that.
No sidebar
I’ve started using no sidebar and just the middle column option on my blog and I have to say it looks very nice and actually drives results and revenue too.
So which ones of these work and are best for you probably depends on your exact set up and goals. I found that in-line calls to action and some strategically placed ads drive the most revenue in my case.
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How to remove sidebar
Depending on your site set up, you may have to talk to a developer or if you’re using a WordPress template you can create a child template without the sidebar. Some blog templates like mine also give you the option to change to a middle column. Here’s how that setting looks and that’s what I currently do.
So sidebar or no sidebar depends on what your goal is after all and also what looks good. Personally, I think a centered article with little distraction and relevant calls to action inline is the way to go.