Want to learn how to set your homepage on WordPress?
Are you stuck on how to change homepage in WordPress? Maybe you bought a WordPress theme, installed it, then wondered why it doesn't look exactly like what you saw in the preview. Or maybe you just want to remove the blog part of your website from the homepage?
Website landing pages mean a lot when it comes to conversions. This applies to registrations for the newsletter by e-mail, sales and customer leads. Still, setting up your homepage on WordPress takes a bit of time to get perfect. But don't worry, setting up and editing your WordPress homepage is pretty much one of the easiest tasks you'll ever come across.
Then, once you know the routine, you'll have no problem performing the same task over and over again with future websites. So let's get to work on how to change your WordPress homepage.
But before, if you have never installed WordPress discover How to install a WordPress blog in 7 steps et How to search, install and activate a WordPress theme on your blog
Then back to why we are here.
When should you set your WordPress homepage?
Since this is WordPress, a blogging platform, your blog appears by default for a new WordPress installation. This means that all your most recent articles appear on the first page everyone lands on.
For some websites, this is perfectly fine. For others, it doesn't make sense from a marketing perspective. Ever since WordPress has become a well-rounded website builder, companies have been looking for static homepages, where they can showcase information about products, services, and people working at the company.
Read also: How to Add Multiple Columns in WordPress
For these businesses, a blog is more of a secondary section that customers can navigate to if they choose, or when they land on one of the blog posts from a search engine.
So this begs the question, when to set and change your WordPress homepage?
Well, the main moment is when you don't want your blog to be featured. This happens when you have some of the following goals:
- Increase the number of email subscribers
- Get more leads
- Generate more sales
- More attention to your services
- When you don't intend to have a blog (like landing page)
- In a situation where you are not quite ready to start a blog
Editing the homepage is a whole different story. Unless you're completely happy with the default theme and setup, chances are you'll want to change some aspect of your website. For example, you might want to do some of the following:
- One or more sidebars
- Show Widgets
- Have a different navigation menu layout
- New colors, logos or other design aspects
In short, most WordPress users make at least some tweaks to their homepages. One of the most popular is to add a static page instead of the blog, while others want to keep the blog while adding all their favorite widgets.
Discover also: How to disconnect inactive users on WordPress
Now that we understand the “why” behind setting up and editing your WordPress homepage, let's explore how to complete the process.
How to Set a Static Homepage in WordPress
As discussed, you have the option of leaving your blog on the homepage. But if you are more inclined to create more of a landing page or add a slider or product gallery, it is necessary to replace your homepage with a static homepage. In fact, the vast majority of premium themes you buy are going to require you to immediately switch to a static homepage.
To change your WordPress homepage, start by opening your WordPress dashboard and navigating to Settings > reading. Select the Playback tab to open several settings for your homepage.
Look for the section Viewing your homepage to see what your website is currently displaying on the homepage. Chances are it's on the option Most recent articles by default. To choose another page, click on the box Static Page option to select and set your new home page.
Upon selection, WordPress reveals two more choices to make. One of them asks you which page you want to display as your home page and the other is for your articles page. If you already have a bunch of pages created on your website (sometimes themes generate basic pages for you, or maybe you've already browsed and created your pages), just scroll down to find the pages that you want.
See also: How to duplicate a page in WordPress
For example, a standard configuration would be to choose the homepage as home page. Keep in mind that it all depends on the names you give to your pages, so it might be completely different for you.
For Items page, you can select a page called Blog or Articles or whatever you choose.
Push the button Save Changes, then navigate to your website interface to see how this static page has become your homepage.
How to make the blog your homepage
Some people just want to display their blog. It's the most common, you guessed it. A general business website probably won't have a blog as its homepage, but a website dedicated only to written content is more likely to want those articles on the homepage.
Read also: How to Find a WordPress Blog Login URL
Therefore, go to Settings> Playback, then check that your latest articles are marked. You don't need to adjust the selection for the homepage or articles page. These will be erased.
However, a few changes can be made depending on how you want your blog to appear. First of all, the number Pigmentation of items displayed per page of blog. You might want to have only five or ten of your most recent blog posts on the homepage.
Some larger blogs keep hundreds of posts on the front page, while many blogs limit their number. But no matter what you choose if you have more posts than you want to display, your blog will create additional pages for the posts (this is called pagination).
So if you have 25 posts and choose to display 10 posts per page, your blog will have 3 pages created to display your posts.
Then comes syndication feeds that display the latest. This is used for RSS feeds.
Finally, you also have a big decision to make regarding how these items are going to appear. Your choices are Full Text et Summary. The summary gives users a chance to see more articles with just a few mouse scrolls.
See also: How to Become a Successful Blogger and Make Money
The full text, however, reveals every word and image of every article. Therefore, a visitor must scroll through the entire article, from the first to the second, and so on. We recommend the Summary option, but many websites have the full text.
Are you ready to set your WordPress homepage?
Sometimes it will look like your website is broken or you are doing something wrong, but it won't be. You'll often find that a quick tweak with the homepage display will do the trick.
Other recommended resources
We also invite you to consult the resources below to go further in the grip and control of your website and blog.
- How to gradually load Facebook and Disqus comments
- 6 Online Document Signing WordPress Plugins
- 10 WooCommerce plugins to recover abandoned baskets
- Using different backgrounds WordPress
- Divi: How to Float Blog Posts
Conclusion
That's it for this tutorial. We hope you found this useful for setting your WordPress homepage. If you have any concerns or suggestions, please let us know within Comments.
However, you will also be able to consult our resources, if you need more elements to carry out your projects of creation of Internet sites, by consulting our guide on the WordPress blog creation or the one on Divi: the best WordPress theme of all time.
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