As WordPress continues to evolve, one of the most transformative updates in recent years has been the introduction of the Block Editor—also known as Gutenberg. For us as content creators, developers, and website managers, this shift offers a more visual, flexible, and intuitive way to build pages and manage content.

What Are Widgets in the WordPress Block Editor?

Traditionally, WordPress widgets were managed through the Appearance → Widgets menu in the dashboard. These were modular components—like recent posts, calendars, search bars, and more—that we could drag and drop into widget areas such as sidebars and footers.

With the arrival of the Block Editor (Gutenberg), widgets have been reimagined as blocks. This means we can now manage widgets using the same block-based system we use for posts and pages—bringing consistency and visual clarity to the editing experience.

Block-Based Widgets: Why It Matters

So why the block-based widget editor matters:

• Visual Editing: We can now see what our widgets will look like as we edit them.
• Block Flexibility: Any block—whether native or third-party—can be used as a widget.
• Reusable Blocks: We can reuse widget content across the site.
• Improved Customization: With group, column, and spacing blocks, layout possibilities have exploded.

Enabling Block Widgets in Classic Themes (Code Example)

If our theme doesn’t support block widgets yet, we can enable it using a simple snippet in our theme’s functions.php file:

function enable_block_widgets_support() {
    add_theme_support('widgets-block-editor');
}
add_action('after_setup_theme', 'enable_block_widgets_support');

Creating a Custom Widget Block (Advanced)

Want to build our own custom block to use as a widget? Here’s a basic boilerplate using JavaScript and the @wordpress packages:

// custom-widget-block.js
const { registerBlockType } = wp.blocks;
const { TextControl } = wp.components;

registerBlockType('mytheme/custom-widget', {
    title: 'Custom Widget',
    icon: 'admin-generic',
    category: 'widgets',
    attributes: {
        content: {
            type: 'string',
            default: '',
        },
    },
    edit: (props) => {
        const { attributes: { content }, setAttributes } = props;
        return (
            <TextControl
                label="Widget Content"
                value={content}
                onChange={(value) => setAttributes({ content: value })}
            />
        );
    },
    save: (props) => {
        return <div>{props.attributes.content}</div>;
    },
});

To register this block, we’d include it in our plugin or theme with proper setup via block.json and webpack/wp-scripts.

Conclusion

The Block Editor has turned widgets into something far more powerful and intuitive than the old drag-and-drop days. Whether we’re customizing a sidebar, footer, or creating custom blocks, the new widget system lets us manage our content visually, flexibly, and efficiently.