One of the ways to customize a WordPress theme is through widgets.
For example, Astra, a very popular WordPress theme, has almost 20 widgets, and more can be added with plugins.
Here are a few:
Categories – Lists the blog post categories. Clicking on the category title link brings the visitor to a page listing all the blog posts for that category with clickable title and excerpt. Category lists are a good way to get to the posts of most interest to you at the moment.
Latest Posts – Lists the most recent posts by title in chronological order. Defaults to the five most recent and each post title links directly to the post itself when clicked. This is especially useful if you are following a blog or would like to quickly catch up on what’s been posted most recently.
Popular Posts – Lists the most viewed posts by title. Clicking on the post title brings the visitor directly to the post. Generally posts become popular for a reason, so a list like this will likely bring a visitor to the blogs best or most interesting posts.
Latest Comments – Lists the most recent comments in chronological order. This is a useful feature if you’re interested in reading what other visitor’s comments or opinions are, or would like to respond to them.
Tag Cloud – Lists post tag words in a paragraph by alphabetical order. If the tag has been used more frequently, it is displayed in a larger, bolder text font. Clicking on the tag word(s) takes the visitor to a page listing posts that have been tagged with that word. Tag clouds can add visual interest and give the visitor an overview of some of the content covered.
Search – Standard search field allows visitors to enter a search term and returns posts or pages containing that term. Search is a very handy feature in general, especially if you’re not sure which post has the information you’re looking for.
Archives – Lists posts by month posted. Clicking on the month links the visitor to a page with all the posts for that month. This is useful if you want to view all the posts for each month, or see how long the blog has been around.
