Widget areas are reserved content sections for everything that is not a Post or a Page. You can use them for pretty much anything, but the most common uses are Advertisements, Meta data, Tag Clouds, RSS Feeds, Recent Comments, and.. well the list goes on.
Within the default LoadedWordPress theme, there are nine reserved widget areas. This doesn’t mean you can only add 9 widgets, but rather the way your widgets display will depend on the areas you assign them.
To assign widgets go to Appearance > Widgets, and you will see the reserved widget areas on right (pictured here). Simply expand the widget area you wish to utilize, then from the available widgets on left, drag and drop you widget where you wish it to display. Mnany widgets have extra options available for further customization.
Also by default, LoadedWordPress features a Widget Logic plugin, which allows you to specify which pages should or shouldn’t show specific widgets. You can use this feature to have specific content, side blocks, or other information selectively displayed only on certain pages, such as your home page, landing page, etc. This makes your site that much more customizable, and that’s the whole point.
There are many other widgets and plugins available for use on your site, and the best way to decide what to use is publish what you are interested in and see how it works. It is as easy as drag-and-drop to try them out, so as you are setting up your site feel free to test any widgets you may want to use.
