Highlighting Top Content with Featured Posts on WordPress

Benefits of Featured Posts

With WordPress, website owners have access to tons of features like custom themes and plugins that help take their site to the next level. One feature in particular – featured posts – is a great way to highlight important content on your WordPress site or blog.

Featured posts are special posts that appear at the top of any page on your WordPress site where you’ve chosen to display them, such as the homepage or category archives. They can have special visuals such as banners, images, or videos attached to them so they really stand out from other content on your page.

Three Simple Ways to Display Featured Posts in WordPress

There are several ways to add featured posts to your WordPress website, including using blocks, adding them to your sidebar, or using a free plugin. Here are three easy ways to get started:

Using a List Block

One way to add featured posts to your WordPress site is by using a list block. To do this, simply go to your page or post editor, select the “Add Block” option, and choose the “List” block. Then, add the posts you want to feature in the list, including images and descriptions if desired. To make this process even easier, consider creating a reusable block that you can insert on multiple pages or posts.

Example of a simple list block.

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Using Posts List block

Another option is to add featured posts to your WordPress sidebar. To do this, you can simply create a new widget area in the customizer and add a list of your featured posts

If you are using a new full site editing WordPress theme you can just add the POSTS LIST block in gutenberg and then style it how you like. You can set up a tag or category that you would like to display, for example ‘Featured Posts’ and set the query loop to display only these posts.

Example of the POST LIST block.

This is a great way to keep your featured content front and center and easily accessible to your visitors.

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Using a Free WordPress Plugin – Not Recommended

Finally, you can add featured posts to your WordPress site using a free plugin. This seems an outdated way to show featured content when you can simply use the Posts List gutenberg block or block builder equivalent.

Simply search the WordPress plugin repository for “featured posts” and install a plugin that fits your needs. Once installed, you can easily add a featured post section to your sidebar by adding a shortcode.

Taking a custom approach to Featured Content

How to Highlight Content

With the right techniques, you can easily make your featured post more engaging and increase reader engagement. Here are some tips for how to highlight content in featured posts using fonts and other formatting options:

Use a Larger Font Size

The bigger the font size, the easier it is for readers to notice your featured post’s most significant points. When selecting fonts for highlighting, consider using contrasting types that will help grab and keep the reader’s attention. For example, bolding or increasing font size of keywords can be an effective way to draw readers in.

Use Contrasting Fonts for Emphasis

Fonts are like a visual cue for readers and can help emphasize certain words or phrases in your post. By using different font sizes, colors, and styles you can easily bring attention to certain parts of the text that really need highlighting.

Bolding and italicizing key words also adds emphasis which will help draw readers’ eyes to specific sections of your featured post.

When choosing fonts, remember that simpler ones look more professional than overly ornate options so try not to go overboard with too many different kinds of fonts on one page!

Use Blockquotes for Added Impact

Blockquotes allow the author to set apart text from the rest of the page, as if it were a separate quote from another source, which adds credibility and authority to your words.

When used properly, blockquotes can enhance the visual appeal of any WordPress blog post or article.

Give your Featured Content Room

Whitespace is the empty space between elements on your page, such as text or images. It is used to draw attention to certain parts of your content and make them more visible. Breathing room is the same concept but applied more broadly on the page; it serves to keep clutter from taking up all of the space and helps readers focus on what matters.

Using whitespace effectively can drastically improve how people view your website’s content. It allows for better navigation, improves readability, and creates an organized layout that looks professional. To create whitespace in a featured post, try increasing the font size so that there’s more vertical space between lines of text, or inserting larger margins before titles or paragraphs of text.

Add Images for Interest

Images can be used to make your posts stand out by adding interest, drawing the readers’ eyes from one section of the post to another, and even emphasize certain points or ideas.

When used strategically, images in a wordpress post are an effective way of adding flair and making posts more attractive.

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Use Consistent Colors

With consistent colors, visitors are able to quickly identify the featured post and determine it’s relevance.

When choosing colors for your highlighted sections, it’s important that you remain consistent across all featured posts. Choosing a single color palette allows the viewer to easily understand the meaning behind each highlighted section rather than being confused by multiple colors. Additionally, using too many colors may be difficult on the eyes for some viewers due to its lack of uniformity and can give off a disorganized impression. To keep things organized and professional, select one or two shades that capture your theme’s tone and use them consistently throughout every highlighted post section you create in WordPress.