These types of popups appear on the right or left side panels of a webpage. They may include calls to action (CTA) buttons and images depending on their design.
Unlike full screen popups or overlay popups, a sidebar popup does not disturb the user as much, since it does not block website content.
Users can keep on engaging with the website content while a sidebar popup is still open. This feature is what makes them better for the user experience (UX) of a website.
Why Is Sidebar Popup Optimum For Websites?
Marketers generally prefer to use popups for advertising and generating leads on their websites.
In that sense, popup windows can be seen as multifunctional tools. Whether it is sidebar popup or any other popup type, if configured and customized carefully, with popups, website owners can:
Generate leads / obtain new subscribers: Site owners can obtain new subscribers to their mailing lists by displaying a popup subscription form on which users can leave their email addresses. This way, marketers can speed up the buying journey and grow mailing lists easily.
Promote products or specific content: Site owners can promote products, e-books, blog posts, and so on with sidebar popups or other popup types.
Increase engagement: Popups can raise user engagement by drawing their attention and offering discounts, sales, etc. Additionally, popups allow site owners to reach leaving visitors by detecting users’ exit intent and asking for their emails, phone numbers, etc. to communicate with them.
Although all popup types serve similar marketing purposes like the ones above, sidebar popups are among the least intrusive types. A sidebar popup does NOT collect more leads than a center popup, though: across the popups we power, we measured the reverse.
The gap is statistically reliable, and the 2026 popup conversion benchmark sets out the method. That's the trade-off: a slide-in asks for less attention and gets fewer leads per display, so choose it when interrupting the reader costs more than the lead. On a blog post, I use a slide-in so the article stays readable, and I accept fewer leads per display for it.
How is a sidebar popup different from a lightbox or a floating bar?
A sidebar popup and a floating bar let the visitor keep reading; a lightbox asks them to close it or act first.
| Format | Where it sits | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Sidebar popup (slide-in) | Left or right side, often a bottom corner | Blog posts, returning visitors, secondary offers |
| Lightbox popup | Center, page dimmed behind it | One offer every visitor should read |
| Floating bar | Top or bottom edge, stays in view on scroll | Short notices: a sale, free shipping |
Only the first two formats have a published rate in our benchmark. When one offer matters more than the page, such as a welcome discount, I use a lightbox instead. Popupsmart offers slide-ins, modal popups and floating bars as campaign formats, and its popup templates are organized by campaign goal.
How to Add a Sidebar Popup to Your Website
Popup service provider tools like Popupsmart provide simple popup building for anyone. In Popupsmart it takes four steps and no code:
- Install: one line of JavaScript, Google Tag Manager, or the Popupsmart app on Shopify.
- Build the campaign with a slide-in layout, or start from a template.
- Target it by page URL, device, scroll depth and time on page.
- Publish. Changes to a live campaign need no redeploy.
Targeting systems ensure that popups are viewed by the right audience at the right time. I set a slide-in on an article to wait until the reader has scrolled into it, rather than open on page load.
You can create a sidebar popup for free with Popupsmart.
Frequently asked questions
Is a sidebar popup the same as a sidebar menu?
No. A sidebar menu is navigation, a panel of links along the edge of a site or app. A sidebar popup is a marketing message, such as a signup form or an offer, that the visitor can close.
Are sidebar popups good for SEO?
Google's guidance doesn't name slide-ins, but it points their way. Google's page on intrusive interstitials and dialogs recommends "banners that take up only a small fraction of the screen" over full-page interstitials, including for newsletter sign-up prompts. A slide-in that grows to cover the article no longer fits that advice.
Sidebar Popup Related Terms
Sidebar Popup Related Articles
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