My blog has been using the WordPress + Polylang plugin to implement both Chinese and English. There are already 10 articles on the left, and the height on the right is barely aligned with the 6 articles on the left, which can just use this part of the space to display personal brand information.
Why put ‘personal brand’ in the sidebar?
For a technical blog, the sidebar is not only a navigation tool, but also a trust entry. I want to get a quick look at first-time readers–Who am I, how long have I written, what value can I provide.
After several rounds of adjustment, this position was finally determined:The sidebar is not a sales page, but a trust entry. Control within 80~120 words (Chinese) and 60~100 words (English), users can enter the complete ‘About Me & Cooperation’ page for in-depth understanding.
The final Chinese version of the copy is as follows:
👨💻 Personal brand
Wang Shiqiang｜PHP / GO Technical Consultant
15+ years of web backend development experience, focusing on system maintenance, architecture optimization, performance tuning and Linux operation and maintenance.
Continuously operated the technology blog for 10+ years, and has released a total of 1000+ original technical articles.
Provide long-term technical support and remote cooperation services for entrepreneurial teams, SMEs and independent developers.
English version corresponding translation:
👨💻 Personal Brand
Wang Shiqiang | PHP & Go Technical Consultant
15+ years of backend development experience specializing in system maintenance, architecture optimization, performance tuning, and linux administration.
Technical Blogger since 2013 with 1,000+ original articles.
Available for consulting, long-term maintenance, and remote collaboration.
multilingual challenge
Since the blog implements multi-language based on WordPress Polylang + TMS Extensions for Polylang, the content of the sidebar needs to display different versions according to different languages. TMS Extensions provides Language Visibility Block, you can display or hide the content in the selected language, just to meet this need.
operating steps
Step 1: Confirm the status of the sidebar
Before adding new content, take a look at the sidebar layout of the current homepage. There are already search boxes, category lists, label clouds and calendars on the right, but there is still a blank area after the classification list.
Figure 1: The right sidebar has a blank area relative to the left side of the article list
Step 2: Go to the Site Editor and find the blog homepage template
In the WordPress background, enter the ‘Appearance → Editor(appearance → editor). After entering, find in the template list and click ‘Blog Home” (Blog Home) template, enter the template editing interface.
Step 3: Add a Language Visibility block in the sidebar
After entering the ‘Blog Home’ template editing interface, find the right side in the page layoutsidebar area. Click at the end of the sidebar area ‘+’ button, search and select Language Visibility block.
Figure 2: Select Language Visibility when adding a block after the classification list
Step 4: Configure two blocks in Chinese and English respectively
Since I need to support both Chinese and English, I added two Language Visibility blocks:
- first block: Language Set to ‘Chinese (China)’, Visibility Mode is set to ‘Show in Selected Language’, the content is put into the Chinese version of the copy
- Second block: LANGUAGE is set to ‘English’, Visibility Mode is set to ‘Show in Selected Language’, the content is put into the English version of the copy
Figure 3: Added two Language Visibility blocks and set them separately
Step 5: Save and verify the display effect of the front desk
Click ”Save‘button. Switch to the front desk to view:
- In the Chinese language, the Chinese version of the ‘Personal Brand’ block is displayed
Figure 4: The page under Chinese (China) shows the first Language Visibility block
- Switch to the English language and automatically switch to the English version of ‘Personal Brand’ block
Figure 5: The page under English shows the second Language Visibility block
Final effect and thinking
Through this adjustment, the sidebar of the homepage has added a ‘personal brand’ area after the classification list, which automatically adapts both Chinese and English, which not only fills the visual blank, but also establishes the trust of readers.
The core idea of this scheme is:Send the most core differentiated information with the most concise text. There are many technical stacks, but ‘continue to write blogs for 10+ years’ and ‘2000+ articles in both Chinese and English’ is the real irreplaceable competitiveness. The sidebar is responsible for arousing interest, and the complete ‘About Me & Cooperation’ page is responsible for the transformation.
If you are also using Polylang to build a multilingual website, you might as well try the Language Visibility block to achieve multi-language content control in the sidebar – simple, clean and effective.
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