Appearance → Customize → Blog → Layout.
The four layouts
| Layout | |
|---|---|
| Narrow (reading width) | A centred reading column, no sidebar. The default |
| Full width | The whole container width, no sidebar |
| Sidebar right | Content left, sidebar right |
| Sidebar left | Sidebar left, content right |
Narrow uses the narrow width (620px out of the box); the other three fill up to the container width (1170px). Both are set under Design → General → Widths.
What it applies to
Every listing context, one setting for the lot:
- the blog home
- a static posts page
- category, tag, author and date archives
- custom post type archives
- search results
Single posts and pages have their own layout settings — see Single post layout and Page layout. They do not inherit this one, so a full-width blog beside narrow posts is a normal arrangement.
Layout and display are two decisions
Layout is how many columns the page has. Display is how the posts are arranged inside the content column — stacked, list or grid. See Display modes.
Some pairings work better than others:
| Layout | Sensible display |
|---|---|
| Narrow | Stacked. A grid inside a 620px column is two cramped cards |
| Full width | Grid, or list |
| Sidebar left/right | List, or a 2–3 column grid |
When the sidebar is empty
A sidebar layout with nothing in the widget area would leave a visitor staring at an empty column, so it falls back to a single column — narrow if the display is stacked, full width otherwise.
Logged-in users who can manage widgets see the column with a note explaining why it is empty and a link to the widgets screen. Visitors see one column. Add a widget and the sidebar appears for everyone. See Enable the sidebar.