Featured Squarespace Plugin: Sidebar Plugin

Why This Matters

If you’ve spent more than a few hours wrangling with Squarespace layouts, you’ll know just how prescriptive the platform can be. The slick, clean designs come at a cost: flexibility. You might want to add essential navigation or contact details to every page, but the trend for single-column simplicity often leaves no room to squeeze in extra content. Suddenly, your site looks lovely but lacks the functionality visitors expect.

This headache recurs for anyone running a site with lots of resources, such as blogs, digital magazines, or membership hubs—any project that would benefit from grouping extra info alongside your main content. A handy sidebar could provide the solution. But on Squarespace, adding a sidebar without hacking at your template or scrambling through custom code is far from straightforward.

A well-built sidebar fills a gap. It speeds up navigation, highlights calls to action, or spotlights your latest products or posts right where your visitors are most likely to see them. When implemented correctly, it’s a worthwhile investment that saves you hours you might otherwise spend duplicating content, swearing at your screen, or both.

The Sidebar Plugin from SQSP Themes arrives right at this intersection of need and frustration. It provides a way to slot a sidebar into even the most rigid Squarespace templates, restoring some flexibility. The challenge is to make it work for your site, without ending up with a design that looks bolted together in a hurry.

Common Pitfalls

Before you fire up the plugin, here’s what usually trips people up:

• Assuming sidebars are just for blogs. Squarespace’s default templates have trained us to associate sidebars only with old-fashioned blog layouts. In reality, a sidebar serves as a strategic powerhouse on any page—if you let it.

• Thinking setup is a simple code copy-paste job. Not quite. Yes, this plugin avoids nose-diving into advanced coding, but there are still a few unintuitive steps along the way. Many users get stuck halfway through the setup because they try to drop code directly into their existing page layouts, only to wonder why nothing changes. You need to set up the sidebar content separately.

• Assuming the plugin works everywhere right out of the box. Some fine-tuning is almost always needed, especially on larger, content-heavy sites. The plugin is flexible, but spending a little time with the settings after install is essential.

• Forgetting about mobile. What looks marvellous on desktop can quickly tumble into chaos on a small screen. Ignoring the plugin’s responsive settings leads to a clumsy user experience.

• Building the same sidebar from scratch on every page. This is a common issue. With the plugin, you can build your sidebar once and have it display where you want. Duplicating effort is possible but rarely advisable (unless you love busywork).

If you avoid these missteps, you’ll end up with a result that helps your site work better for your users.

Step-by-Step Fix

Step 1: Purchase and Download the Sidebar Plugin

First, head to SQSP Themes and grab the Sidebar Plugin. At £50 for a standard licence, it isn’t the cheapest plugin out there, but you are paying for a tool that saves you hours of struggling with custom layouts.

Once you buy, you’ll receive a download containing the plugin files and access to the setup guide. Follow the email instructions to ensure you’ve got everything ready.

Step 2: Create a New Sidebar Content Page

Here’s where many get caught out. Unlike some add-ons, the Sidebar Plugin needs its own content source. Think of this as your sidebar ‘control hub’.

• In Squarespace, create a brand new “Text” page. Name it something memorable (e.g. “Sidebar Content”).
• Fill this page with whatever you want displayed in your sidebar: navigation, contact widgets, custom forms, calls to action, social feeds, or anything that fits your purpose.
• You can structure the content however you like. Rich text blocks, images, buttons, and embedded blocks are all fair game.

The benefit here is that you only need to update one place whenever you want to change something in your sidebar across the whole site.

Step 3: Insert the Plugin Code and Connect the Sidebar

Open the plugin setup guide. You’ll be copying and pasting some code snippets. The guide will explain exactly where they go. Typically, this is in the “Page Header Code Injection” field or the “Custom Code” area for your template.

• Choose where you want the sidebar to show. This could be everywhere across your site or only on certain pages (for example, all blog posts but not your home page).
• Use the style selector included with the plugin. This allows you to choose the side (left or right) and other style options without dealing with CSS.
• Link the plugin to the “Sidebar Content” page you just created. The guide will spell out how to do this, but in typical Squarespace fashion, the method is not always obvious. You’ll likely need to use a block ID or unique URL.

Step 4: Adjust Styling and Format Options

Now you can make your sidebar look like it belongs. With the plugin, you’ll find a dedicated “styling and format” control panel. Here’s what you can tweak:

• Sidebar Position: Left or right. There’s no “wrong” side, but right sidebars tend to be less distracting on content-heavy sites.
• Width: Set your preferred column width for the sidebar and the main content. Start conservative. Most sites only need the sidebar to take up a third of the horizontal space at most.
• Font, Background, Padding, Borders: Customise these to match your brand or align with your site’s style guide.

The plugin should preview your changes live, but double-check—especially if you’ve heavily modified your base template.

Step 5: Fine-Tune for Mobile Responsiveness

Over half of your users likely land on your site from a mobile or tablet. Even the best Squarespace plugins don’t always handle this smoothly.

• Open your site on multiple devices (laptop, tablet, phone).
• Check how the sidebar collapses, disappears, or slides beneath the main content depending on your settings.
• Use the plugin’s safeguards to make the sidebar disappear on mobile if it’s getting in the way.
• If possible, create a pared-back “mobile sidebar” with only essential links or CTAs, and set the plugin to toggle this version when viewed on small screens.

Nobody likes a sidebar that takes up half the phone screen.

Step 6: Share, Test, and Iterate

Finally, go through your site as a visitor. Check for:

• Broken layouts or text running off pages.
• Sidebar content that repeats unnecessarily or distracts from the main goal of your page.
• Places where the sidebar genuinely helps users find content rather than making navigation harder.

Make tweaks, revisit your setup if needed, and don’t be afraid to experiment. There’s no single best sidebar. What fits a photography portfolio might not suit an online store.

What Most People Miss

Many site owners fall into the trap of seeing a sidebar only as a dumping ground for leftovers—somewhere to plonk affiliate banners, social feeds, or a mix of navigation links. When used strategically, a sidebar becomes far more valuable.

Here’s how an effective sidebar stands apart from a mediocre one:

• Purposeful Placement: Add only what genuinely assists your users. Need quick links to your latest resources? Put them in. Want email signups? A simple call-to-action here outperforms the same one buried at the page bottom.
• Consistency: Use the plugin to display a standard sidebar across dozens of pages. That’s time saved, fewer errors, and an improved visitor journey.
• Testing and Adjusting: Remain flexible. If nobody clicks your “Download Brochure” button after a month, swap it out or move it up.

Based on real client projects, Pixelhaze sees the biggest advantage as having a single, reliable location for managing small campaigns. You can promote a live webinar or a seasonal offer instantly, everywhere it matters, and switch everything back with one click when the campaign ends.

The Bigger Picture

Solving the sidebar issue gives you better site management and smoother workflows.

For example:

• When building a content-heavy or frequently updated site, a plugin like this saves hours of duplicate work and layout tweaks.
• Sidebars offer easier navigation for your users, especially on resource or learning-focused sites. Fewer clicks to reach guides or downloads keep visitors happy, and often increase the time they spend browsing.
• When your site grows—adding extra pages, category hubs, or new service offerings—the sidebar provides a central, manageable way to update your navigation, promotions, or key CTAs without needing a redesign.

For those who care about design, the plugin’s styling controls let you keep your site updated without mastering CSS.

This small investment rewards you with smooth workflows, consistent branding, and a better experience for both site owners and visitors. Results like these quietly support an effective Squarespace site.

Wrap-Up

Adding a sidebar to Squarespace is a deceptively tricky challenge. The default templates work against you, and custom code solutions introduce their own complications. The Sidebar Plugin by SQSP Themes bridges this gap by helping you reclaim layout space, manage content centrally, and maintain a strong visitor experience.

Here’s a quick checklist:

• The plugin works for more than old-school blog layouts. It brings essential, modern functionality to any Squarespace project that needs a boost.
• The install process is mostly straightforward, but follow the setup guide closely.
• Take the time to plan what your sidebar should do, not just how it looks.
• One central sidebar page means less stress when updating content.
• Mobile friendliness is essential. Test extensively.

The end result gives you more time for the important parts of your site, less hassle, and a website that’s genuinely helpful.

If you want more systems like this, join Pixelhaze Academy for free at https://www.pixelhaze.academy/membership.