Sticky Posts in WordPress Themes: How to Use and Style Them

Sticky posts let you pin an important post to the top of your WordPress blog page, no matter when it was published. The sticky feature arrived in WordPress 2.7, but in 2009 our theme did not support it, so ticking the sticky box did nothing. Here is how sticky posts in WordPress themes work in 2026, how to mark a post sticky, and how to add sticky post support and styling to classic and block themes.

Quick answer: To make a sticky post in WordPress, open the post and tick Stick to the top of the blog in the Post settings sidebar (block editor), or tick Make this post sticky in Quick Edit. Most modern themes support sticky posts automatically. In a block theme, the Query Loop block has a Sticky posts setting to include, exclude or show only sticky posts.

How to make a post sticky in WordPress

Block editor

1. Open the post in the editor.
2. In the right sidebar, open the Post tab.
3. Tick Stick to the top of the blog (in the Status or Summary panel) and click Update.

Quick Edit or Classic Editor

1. Go to Posts > All Posts and hover over the post.
2. Click Quick Edit and tick Make this post sticky, then Update.
3. In the Classic Editor, click Edit next to Visibility in the Publish box and tick Stick this post to the front page.

You can mark several posts as sticky. They appear at the top of your main blog page, newest first.

Sticky posts in block themes

In block themes such as Twenty Twenty-Five, the blog page uses a Query Loop block. Select it in the Site Editor and use the Sticky posts option:

• Include: sticky posts appear first, then other posts.
• Exclude: sticky posts are left out of this loop.
• Only: show only sticky posts, useful for a “Featured” section on the homepage.

Add sticky post support to a classic theme

If you use an old or custom classic theme where sticky posts do not stand out, these steps add support, just as we did in 2009.

1. In index.php (or the template part that shows posts), wrap each post in an element that uses post_class():

   <article <?php post_class(); ?>>
     <h2><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
     <?php the_excerpt(); ?>
   </article>

2. WordPress adds the sticky class to sticky posts on the main blog page. Style it in style.css:

   .sticky {
     background: #fff8e6;
     border-left: 4px solid #F28C1E;
     padding: 1rem;
   }

3. To show a label, check is_sticky() in the loop:

   <?php if ( is_sticky() ) : ?>
     <span class="sticky-label">Featured</span>
   <?php endif; ?>

Show or hide sticky posts in custom queries

• Sticky posts only float to the top on the main blog page by default.
• In a custom WP_Query, use 'ignore_sticky_posts' => true to stop them jumping to the top.
• To list only sticky posts, use 'post__in' => get_option( 'sticky_posts' ).

Tips for using sticky posts

• Keep only a few sticky posts, so new content is still visible.
• Use them for your best guides, announcements or start-here pages.
• Review them every few months and swap in fresher posts.

Want featured images to stand out too? See how to add post thumbnails to WordPress themes.

FAQ

Why is my sticky post not at the top?

Sticky posts only lead the main blog posts page. Category pages, custom homepages and some theme layouts ignore them unless the theme or Query Loop is set to include them.

Can pages be sticky in WordPress?

No. The sticky feature is only for posts.

How many sticky posts can I have?

There is no limit, but too many push your latest posts down.

Do sticky posts help SEO?

They can send more internal links and visitors to your key posts, but they do not directly change rankings.