Adding a Widget Area Below the Header in Genesis Child Theme

For a resent project I wanted to add a widget area below the header and have it display on all pages except the homepage. I’m calling it the “Page Title Widget Area”.

This tutorial is for use with the Genesis Framework and a Genesis Child Theme.

Here is a screenshot of what it looks like, the red box is highlighting the widget area.

This is a really simple setup. You just need to be able to edit three of your theme files, functions.php, home.php, and style.css.

Step 1:

We need to register the new widget area and get it to display in the correct location, below the header.

This code also adds the appropriate class to the widget area for styling purposes.

Add the following code to your themes function.php file.

Step 2:

Because I already have several widget areas on the homepage, I did not need the Page Title widget to show up in the homepage. This code will remove the Page Title widget area from the homepage of your website.

Add this code to your themes home.php or front-page.php file.

Step 3:

This code will style the widget area like you see it in the screenshot at the top of this page. Feel free to edit it as needed.

Add this code to your themes style.css file.

Now, when you go to the widgets section of your WordPress dashboard you will see a new widget area titled, “Page Title”.

Add the desired widgets to the new widget area and you’re done.

If you have complications or need assistance, feel free to use the comments or chat below.