WPBeginner is using WordPress if you can’t tell already, but we have a custom design. One of the part about our design is that we have a custom homepage. You may see many websites on the web using a custom homepage for their WordPress. In this tutorial we will show you how you can create a custom homepage by combining the use of custom page template, and WordPress admin panel.
Video Tutorial
If you don’t like the video or need more instructions, then continue reading.
Before you read any further, one of the thing you must understand is:
Custom WordPress Page Template
So read the above post before you continue to follow this tutorial. You will need to have a custom page created already as mentioned in the article above. Once you have a custom page created to fit your need for the homepage, you will need to create another page using the technique mentioned in the method above except you will just copy and paste the index.php codes in that template and name it blogblog.php or something along this line letting you know that the template is for blog pages.
Click on Settings > Reading
Select the option of Static Page, now select one of your page to be the homepage, while another page to be your blogpage.
Once you have done that, save the settings and now you have a custom homepage.
You will now have a custom page being displayed as your front page, and a separate page being displayed as your blog page.
Method 2
Method 2 does not involve the use of Custom Page Template Technique. All you have to do is create a new file and name it home.php, and you can use any WordPress parameters in there. This file will automatically take over your index.php, and it will be displayed as your homepage. You can use this method if you do not want to have a separate blog page.
Hi, I’m trying to edit my “homepage” which is set as my latest posts. I need to add a slider on that page but I can’t. I don’t want a static homepage because I prefer my homepage showing my latest posts. Please help me. This is day two of trying to figure this out. All the articles I’ve read are about static and dynamic pages and want to keep everything as is besides the editing part. I I’d really appreciate your help.
My wordpress does not have that option of selecting a static page in reading settings. I waste more time looking for it, questions and answers and its not even there. Now what do I do.
I am using WordPress self-hosted and the static page selection option appears under: Themes>Customize>General Settings>Static Front Page. Hope this helps.
Hi! Using the Responsive theme which allows you to use a custom front page. I am trying to redirect all of my blog posts to go on a separate page but when I go to Settings>Readings to assign the static pages, it automatically disables my custom front page and then my blog posts post on both the home page and the page I want them to go to.
*Note–when I try to select ‘Home’ for a static page, it does not show up in the drop down box.
hi… I love wpbeginner… you guys makes it so easy for me to understand how to create my website. I just wished you would update some of the information like the screen shots. some are out of date and makes it a little bit confusing. But overall, you do explain things very clearly which I truly appreciate since I have been scared of using wordpress for the longest time because of the many technical requirement that comes with it.
Help? Using Optimizer theme. How do I add a button in the centre bottom of my static Home / Frontpage. Want that button to animate and direct people to a different page.
Im not using the blogging features at all, just want plain site with pages.
Perfect and easy to do!
Thank You!
You are welcome
we are glad you found it helpful.
Video; short sweet helpful
Hi,
I’ve tried this whole guide but didn’t find any change. I created home.php too
Please Help Me.
hello, i was trying to change the drop down menu to horizontal product menu on my E-Commerce store home page. but i couldn’t figure out how i can do that, can you suggest a plugin that will look great on this website?
I’m in a mess. Totally. I started a WordPress page and posted and received replies. Great. Except I had no Home page and lacked the usual facilities that this brings.
How can I backtrack and set up a Home page on my Blog? I have written one but it appears in the dated list instead of as a first page.
Without me knowing it two things have gone missing. Comments are no longer allowed and a page has disappeared.
I’m getting scared. How much more is going to disappear while I struggle through?
Please see our guide on the difference between posts vs pages. After that follow the instructions in our tutorial on how to set a custom homepage in WordPress.
how to add custom text in home page latest post like author info,post added date?
Hi,
I have a wp page for my convention last year. Now, I want to make a page for this years con.
I would like to create a new homepage with a link to last years page.
Can you help me?
thanks
Hi,
Completely new to WordPress.
I want to add a customerised logo to the header of my Static Front Page.
I can’t seem to find how to do this.
hi
i’ve created a static page in wordpress,i want to interact that wordpress page in my existing website.is it possible?
I make use of WordPress, Headway and the Yoast SEO plugin. But I keep struggling with changing the meta description of the homepage. It seems very easy to set up the metadescription of the homepage at SEO->Title’s&meta’s->Home, but unfortunately I have no box for the metadescription. Apparently because I make use of a static page, Yoast sends me to edit the metadescription at the frontpage itself (see image). I already changed the metadescription of this frontpage 5 months ago, but Google still shows a automatic summary of my homepage. What do I do wrong? Please help me out.
use “all-in-one-seo” plugin
I cant see links to my posts from my home page. How to I connect them to my “about me” page? Please?
hi is it possible to have create a custom link in the menu and allow this to be the front page?
I have been blogging for around 5 years now. My default home page was the blog page. I wish to set another page as my static front page and display blog on another page. Will doing this change link addresses of my blog posts? Will it affect the SEO ranking and registered links?
Thanks
Mandar
Hi!
I have an account in WordPress.com.
I created some pages (only pages). My intention is to have only pages and I need choose one of them as home page.
But my “Readings Settings” doesn’t show the option “Front page display” to this. I don’t have plugins. My theme doesn’t show this option as well.
Do you have a ideia about this problem?
Thanks!!!
John this guide is for self hosted WordPress.org websites. For help with WordPress.com please contact support from your account’s dashboard. Meanwhile, you can read more about the difference between WordPress.org vs WordPress.com
Sorry by inconvenience.
Thank you so much.
my dilemma is the home page having the header… whenever i choose the front page with the page i want… i am very troubled with the menu and header being gone… please help…
Depending on what theme you are using, this could be a theme problem.
Hi there,
I have some stupid question… :))
I know how to do static or dynamic home page.
But can’t figure out how to create new admin menu (the one on the left) label – Home Page.
And to add in there custom meta boxes
My home page has many different containers, that I wanna let client to edit.
So I need create a Home Page Editing form.
Is that possible, and how?
Thank you ini advance
Regards,
Alex
Hello!
I use Yoast and Corsa theme for my foodblog, both works excellent but I have an issue with my titles:
nu kokar jagChili con carne på högrev med rostad paprika med rökt rimmat sidfläsk
Is it possible to remove blog title in front of post names in the title or get a space between blog title and post names?
Like this:
nu kokar jag – Chili con carne på högrev med rostad paprika med rökt rimmat sidfläsk
or
Chili con carne på högrev med rostad paprika med rökt rimmat sidfläsk
What is the most SEO friendly?
Please check out our guide on how to install and setup Yoast’s WordPress SEO Plugin.
Hi, thanks for this useful article.
My question is:
Method 1: Do you think using a static page for the main page does not affected to the page rank, because it’s still have the dynamic content? Can I delete index.php file by doing this?
Method 2: How about if I rename the index.php -> home.php rather than create a new home.php and modify the parameters on there. Is it possible to not have the index.php in template?
You should not delete index.php file in your theme, it is required for each WordPress theme to have an index.php file even if you are using a static front page.
You can remove dynamic elements from your static page. Most WordPress themes have separate widget areas for static front pages. If yours does not have and it is still adding dynamic content like recent posts and stuff that you don’t want then you can create a home.php template in your child theme and modify it to meet your needs.
What if there is no static page, no home.php? A site I am taking over has a home url of index.php which seems to invoke a flash movie (swf), rather than showing posts. Where is this configured?
I wanted to post a quick update on where to set the static front page as it is no longer in Settings->Reading.
You’ll find this in your theme customization area if you are using twentyeleven or twentytwelve. Had to look around for that a bit.
Thank you, Christian D. You posted in 2012 yet the same old wrong advice is out there. No wonder I was tearing my hair out!
The option is still there on Settings > Reading page. We checked with Twenty Twelve, Twenty Eleven, Fourteen, Fifteen and with the latest Twenty Sixteen theme as well. However, it can also be set from Theme customizer as well.
Sorry, Christian D, my response was ambiguous. It really was a thank you. I’ve had problems trying to follow the advice out there.
Thank you for this great article !!!
Very well written and easy to follow. I have been trying to figure this out for the past month and now I can finally publish my new site! Cheers!
This is the type of simple and straightforward article that novice WordPress users can benefit from. Well done.