How to Create a Table of Contents in WordPress: 2 Methods and the Best Plugins

Writing lengthy blog posts is advantageous for SEO purposes. It is also necessary to provide a comprehensive explanation of a subject that requires at least 1500 words.

The majority of readers search for specific knowledge in the post, so they skim the article. If they are unable to locate it at first sight, they will exit the website.

To find relevant content in a long article, visitors can find it very helpful to use the table of contents (TOC). Visitors’ engagement with the website is improved by it.

It aids visitors in navigating your blog post and enhances the user experience.

Creating a table of contents for each post in WordPress is a simple task, either by using a table of contents plugin or manually.

In this article, we will demonstrate how to add tables of content to your WordPress website, either manually or with a plugin.

What is the significance of the WordPress Table of Contents?

A table of contents is a useful tool in a blog post to list the main point of the post. By using the Table of Contents, readers who are interested in specific points can access the topic directly.

Easy navigation inside the long post content also improves the user experience. The Table of Contents features bullet points that engage users with the content. This also aids in improving SEO.

Rich content on search engine result pages can also be achieved using it. In the event that a user asks about a specific topic, Google may provide a direct link to the table of contents on your website.

How to Create Table of Contents in WordPress Without Plugin

To add a table of contents to a WordPress post or page follow the steps below.

1 Create a title Table Of Contents (Arrow 1) 

2 Add all the titles of the page h tags under Table of Contents as list components (Arrow 2). 

3 Now go to the first paragraph h tag and place the mouse cursor over the tag as shown in the picture (Arrow 1).

4 Click the three vertical dots (Arrow 2).5 Now click the Edit as HTML (Arrow 3)

6 Add the line id=”what-are-widgets” (Arrow 1). You can add any unique id as id=”xyz”. But remember one thing the value of each ID should be unique for all page tags and the ID value should not have space. We will repeat this process for all paragraph tags of the post or page, that we want to list in the table of contents. 

7 Now click Edit Visually (Arrow 2)

8 Now go to the TOC we have already added. Select a title (Arrow 1).

9 Click the link Icon (Arrow 2)

10 A popup window will open. Add #what-are-widgets in the input box (Arrow 1).

11 Press enter button (Arrow 2).

Now, the Link to the first paragraph title has been added to the TOC.

Repeat the same process step 1 to step 11, and add all paragraph title links to the Table of Contents. 

You can see all the links have been added to the Table of Contents (Arrow 1).  

Your table of contents will be displayed on the website’s front end as shown in the following picture. You can customize it using CSS.

How to Use Easy Table of Contents Plugin

It is easy to add 2 – 3 posts or pages table of contents, but It is a difficult process to add every time Table of Contents to the new post.

To solve the problem we can use a Tabel of Contents plugins. Here we will explain how to add a TOC plugin.

To learn will take an example of Easy Table of Contents plugin

Installing TOC plugin 

Follow the steps below to install the WordPress Table of Contents.

1 In the left pan of the WordPress dashboard click Plugins.

2 Now click Add New. 

3 Search table of contents.

4 Click Install Now, and after installation click Activate.

Table of Contents  Plugin Setting

Settings for the table of contents are divided into sections, we explain them one by one.

General Setting

To generate a table of contents, you need to select posts, pages, or other types in the general setting.

By default, Posts and Pages are selected, but you can also select more options.

Appearance Settings

The appearance setting allows you to adjust Width, Alignment, Wrapping, Headings Padding, Font Option, Title Font Size, Title Font Weight, Font Size, and Child Font Size.

In theme options, you can select Theme Color, Background Color, Border Color, Title Color, Link Color, Link Hover Color, Link Visited Color, Heading Text Direction.

Advance Setting

In the advance settings section, it’s possible to choose options to ensure that anchors are in lowercase. The primary choice is to determine the depth at which we need to insert the tag in TOC. The headings option (h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6) can be selected for that purpose.

Although there are many settings, we have made the necessary ones. Once the changes have been made, click the Save Changes button at the bottom.

The purpose of this section is to demonstrate how to install the TOC plugin and make the necessary settings. These settings are nearly identical in all other TOC plugins. It’s similar to setting up other Table of Contents plugins.

Tables of content for your WordPress posts and pages are automatically generated by the Easy Table of Contents plugin. The plugin is easy to use and user-friendly.

WordPress Table of Contents Plugin

Here we list a few plugins for TOC.

Easy Table of Contents plugin

Tables of content for your WordPress posts and pages are automatically generated by the Easy Table of Contents plugin. This plugin is easy to use and user-friendly.

Gutenberg, Classic Editor, Elementor, Divi, WPBakery Page Builder, and Visual Composer page editors can be used with it.

All content inside the template tag ‘_content()’ is linked by it.

You have the option to select a theme based on the style of the table of contents. You have the option to select colors for the border, background, and link color that match your theme and design.

You have the option to choose the position where the Table of Contents is displayed on the post or page. It’s possible to decide which header tag (h) appears in the table of contents. 

Bullet formats like decimal, numeric, and Roman can also be selected.

LuckyWP Table of Contents

LuckyWP Table of Contents Plugin inserts a table of contents automatically in posts and pages. It is an SEO-friendly plugin because it generates TOC that supports Google snippets on the result page. 

It is able to insert the table of contents with a short-code, Gutenberg block, or widget.

You can customize TOC appearance easily by changing width, float, title font size and weight, items font size, and colors. You can set the minimum number of headings to display the table of contents.

Table of Contents Plus

It not only automatically inserts a table of contents in posts and pages but also outputs sitemap listing pages and categories across your WordPress website.

You can include the index in the sidebar. It is very simple to add a TOC index to the sidebar.

Click Appearance then  Widgets Now drag the TOC+ to your desired sidebar and position.

Ultimate Block Plugin

The Ultimate Block plugin is used to add custom blocks to the Gutenberg editor. It also adds a block to the Gutenberg editor that is capable of creating tables of content.

Inserting a table of contents in your post or page is an easy task with the Ultimate Block Plugin. It takes a single click to insert TOC, but it doesn’t do it automatically.

Select the desired position and insert a table of contents block, and the TOC will be generated automatically.

You can customize TOC bullet points, alignment, and number of columns.

You can also remove any header you don’t want to display in the TOC.

The Ultimate Block plugin is useful for WordPress websites with lengthy posts that contain various types of content.

Heroic Table of Contents

Heroic Table of Contents automatically adds TOC to your posts or pages. A TOC generator plugin is available for free.

It is up to you to decide which post headings should be displayed on the target website page.

It allows you to choose from 4 pre-made styles for TOC. It also facilitates a button to expand or collapse the table on the front page.

In lengthy content, you can create multiple TOCs. It is a mobile-friendly and SEO-friendly plugin.

CM Table of Contents

CM Table of Contents plugin generates a customizable table of contents for pages and posts.

You can select which header tag to include in the TOC. Also, you can customize TOC using CSS.

You can change the TOC title, navigation style, and font size. It also has the option to collapse or expand TOC on the page. 

It supports custom post types, long paginated posts, hierarchical or multi-level tables, wrapping the text left or right, selecting the number of columns in the TOC, and displaying a floating table of contents div when the user scrolls. Also, add the button “Back to the Top”  or row.

Conclusion

The table of contents is crucial for the user experience and helps visitors connect with your content.

In this article, we have explained how to add TOC manually or using a TOC plugin.

If your blog is small or you frequently add posts or pages, you can manually add TOC. But in the case of a large post collection, you may have the option to add a TOC using a plugin.

We hope this article helps you to add TOC to your WordPress blog posts.

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