By default WordPress displays your content in a blog format on the homepage. But what if you want to create a custom homepage in WordPress? Where does your blog page go? In this article, we will show you how to create a separate page for blog posts in WordPress.
Video Tutorial
If you don’t like the video or need more instructions, then continue reading.
Using Default Static and Blog Page Settings in WordPress
WordPress comes with built-in support for creating a custom home page (static front page), and a separate page for blog posts. To use this method, you need to create two new WordPress pages. The first page is going to be your custom home page. In your WordPress admin, go to Pages » Add New to create a new page. You can title this page Home. On the right hand side, you will see Page Attributes box with an option to choose a template.
Most modern WordPress themes come with custom page templates that can be used for the static front page of your website. In this example we are using the Twenty Twelve theme which comes with a front page template. After choosing the template, the next thing you need to do is to click on screen options at the top right corner of the screen and check the discussion box.
This will display discussion meta box below the post edit area. Uncheck both comments and trackbacks to disable discussion on the home page.
Next you need to create another page for your blog posts. You can title this page as Blog. A lot of WordPress themes come with different templates, and it is possible that your theme may have a template to be used for blog page. However, if there is no template available in your theme, then you can simply choose default. Don’t forget to disable the comments and trackbacks option on this page as well.
What we have done here is created two pages which we will use to display a custom homepage and a page for blog posts. Now we need to get WordPress to use these pages accordingly. To do that go to Setttings » Reading and under the Front page displays option choose A static page. Below that choose the page to be used as the front page and the page for your blog posts.
Save your changes, and load your site to review changes. You may want to display the blog page in your navigation menus. To do that go to Appearance » Menus and add blog page to your menu.
We hope this article helped you create a custom page for blog posts in WordPress. For feedback and questions please leave us a comment or reach us on twitter @WPBeginner.
Hi there
I have a question. I have followed the video instructions which were great! However, I cant figure out how to fix one glitch.
The feature image that i had for my blog page (static page called ‘Stories’) has been replaced by the homepage feature image once i chose the Stories page as the blog page. My homepage is static. I don’t want the same page for my blog page as i have at the homepage. If you could give me some instruction that would be great! Thanks!
Hi, How to add only blog category posts on blog page?
I have 3 categories on my site like Blog, reviews and coupons. but i want to show only blog category posts on my blog page, how would i do that? right now all category post are showing up on my blog page reviews and coupons too.
How would i make only one category to be showed on blog page?
there are twp options for homepage in WordPress 1.latest posts 2. custom page. should I choose latest post option or custom page option in WordPress as my homepage. I only have blog posts to show and i want to show all of them on my homepage. so Whichone of these will increase seo and PR of my homepage latest posts option or custom page.
FIRST: Your tutorial has been very usefull and illuminating!
So… I have a one page site, I want to add some preview posts to the landing page, and make another page where all the posts are… BUT I have one big problem: the menu in my blog page doesn´t work, cause my main page works on css #… I haven’t figure out how to even explain this since I haven’t found a solution in the internet, can you please help me?
Hi Renee,
It seems like your site is setup to be a single page site. For your blog page link, you will need to edit the navigation menu and manually add the blog page link there.
Hi, thanks for the post. Would you no-index the blog page?
Thanks
Hi Christipher,
No. Adding no-index to the blog page will prevent search engines from indexing it.
Hi wpbegineer support team,
i have my blog page and in blog page in right sidebar there is search box. but i search any content in searchbar, it’s redirect the main url to example.com/?s=seo. but i want it to example.com/blog/?s=seo. what should i do?
Hi Amiya,
Please see our article on how to change the default search url slug in WordPress
Hi, thanks for a great video. I have created the blog post page and all the posts show. However they show in full and not summary even though summary is checked in the reading section. Please help!
Hi Estie,
Please see if your theme settings has an option to display excerpts on the blog page.
Thank you so much for the video!! This explained everything, step by step and my site has now been re-designed.
Hi,
Thank for the video, really helpful.
However, I’ve still got a problem here. I’ve created my Blog page with a certain text on it. Like: “I’m glad to share my knowledge with you!”, and then I plan for the posts to follow. But when I’ve tuned the Blog page to become a default page for posts as per this video guide, it doesn’t display that text anymore.
Any tips?
Thanks in advance for your answer!
if I use a page for my blog post doesn’t it not allow me to use tags and categories because it is creating Pages as blog posts?
Hi,
The page will just act as a placeholder to display your blog posts. You will write your blog posts as you normally do without editing that page.
Mega! I was properly stuck right until the end. Thanks for going through the whole process
Hi, I was able to make custom blog page. But I cnanot provide custom page to individual post pages. How do I get layout option in post pages. im using blank slate
Hello,
Is there any way I can add another page for blog even if I don’t have a static front page? If so, how?
Hi Debabrata,
What do you want to show on your homepage then? If only your blog entries will appear on homepage and then you have another separate page for blog entries, they will be exactly the same which may cause duplicate content issue with search engines.
I dont have a ‘reading’ option under my settings – my dshboard does not look quite like this one…please help!
Hi Jessica,
You are probably using WordPress.com. Please see our guide on the difference between self hosted WordPress.org vs free WordPress.com blog.
Very useful article for WordPress beginners like me.I really appreciate your efforts.Thank you team.
I created a blog using the static homepage setting. But I have an issue. All the details of my blogs are opened in my blog section. My goal is to make it write a little tent about each blog section and skip to the next blog topic so that when clicked on, it would open fully the selected blog
Great video. Really helpful.
I love WPbeginner.
WPbeginner has been a great resource to me.
Thank you so much! Have been struggling like forever to figure this out!!
I’m trying to add posts to my blog post page, I went to the reading setting on the dashboard to enable the page I want as my blog page. Then I made a post and posted it to that blog page. It showed up on the right page, however it appears underneath the top header of the page, so the header is overlapping the post. Help!
Thank you this was so easy! I’ve been trying to figure this out for ages now and I stumbled across your video.
Hello:
Thank you so much. This was very helpful. I’m wondering if there is an easy way to create a header for the Blog page as my picture gets lost when you create a static home page. From what I gather, it can only be coded in HTML so I’m hoping there is more current good news on this.
Hi Wanda,
You can try this, edit the blog page and set the image you want to use in the header as featured image. Most themes use the featured image as header in their page templates.
what can i do so my home page feature image does not override the feature image I have chosen for my blog post page called ‘stories’. I have made my homepage static. thanks.
Hi Tina,
It depends on your theme. Normally, if you set a featured image for your homepage then it should only appear on the homepage. However, some users confuse the featured image with the site-wide header image. Please contact your theme’s author for support, they would be able to help you out.
My posts are showing up as a thumbnail image. I just want it to look like a regular blog. What am I doing wrong?
This was perfect. Informative and easy to follow. Thanks so much!
Hi…I have followed the instructions but STILL don’t see my posts on my blog…also, my text in my welcome and about pages is at the bottom of the page…any ideas how to fix both of these…thx so much for your help…
Why doesn’t my WordPress look like this in the video? I have no ‘Reading’ under ‘Settings’. I have created a page called News and I have written a separate blog post but I cannot understand how to link the two.
Exactly! I am facing a similar problem.
Is it possible to have multiple posts pages in WordPress?
My concept is one page for gardening posts, one for real estate advice, and one for commerical land training information.
Hello,
Please see our guide on how to add topics in WordPress navigation.
Just found this tweet and tried. Never knew about creating a page for blog posts. Thanks a lot.
The information of easy to follow and helped me do what I’ve been trying to accomplish for awhile. Thx
Complicate the simple. Make the simple complicated. That’s WordPress.
Your explanation makes sense, but where does the existing home page go? I am creating a new home page, but does that mean I need to build a new home page?
Thank YOU!
Is there any SEO benefits to Create a Separate Page for Blog Posts in WordPress? Or any SEO losses when I change my default Blog Post location to a custom page?
Hello! This is great…but! Can you help me add a SECOND blog page to my website?
Hi Sally,
If you want to add numbers below blog page, then please see our guide on how to add numeric pagination in WordPress.
How to add a blog page to page builder for mobile menu in wordpress? It seems like The blog page isn’t visible there.
this article was great. I think I need to start over! cause when I click on blog, the blog I wrote is over all the pictures from the front page and from the one I attached to a particular blog. This is way too hard.
Hey, could you please help me? I really want to be able to sort my posts into different pages on my blog to keep things organized. Is this possible? If not, is there any alternative that could help me to post images with captions sort of like “posts” instead of just making the page look like that permanently? I want to be able to view a sort of gallery of images, and when I click on them get the full-screen version with captions. I found a perfect theme to let me do this, but I can’t get these to go anywhere but the front page! I really want to copy these posts onto my different pages.
THANK YOU. This was driving me nuts and your explanation couldn’t have been easier for this non techie website builder
The info and video seem a bit dated for my WordPress does not have some of the options discussed. The video is pretty good except in places she skips steps. We are beginners, not experts, and we need all the “bread crumbs” we can get.
I followed the directions as best as I could, knowing this latest version of Word Press does not have a lot of the steps mentioned, e.g., there are no “discussions” to uncheck.
When I access my website, there was a static page with only Home listed. Where is Blog?
Reading additional sites, it appears the theme one installs has something to do with what shows and does show on the home screen – correct? To me this is a convoluted mess with no straightforward instructions. Most frustrating. If the theme is important, as some websites suggest, then why is it not one of the first things mention?
For me – I’ve already generated a blog and it works. I need to also generate a webpage for the communications class I’m in. So, with a blog already present, how does one add a static home page, wherein one can access the blog that has already been made in WordPress. Seems straightforward – but it’s not for I cannot find a fix to this question. Any advice, suggestions on sites to read, would be appreciated. This is like making a “mountain out of a molehill.”
Best evening wishes,
I followed written directions using WordPress 4.9.1 and found the discussions checkbox; try ignoring the video.
To have the Blog page be selectable as the Posts page, you have to create the Blog page first.
Themes may mangle a lot of WordPress instructions, there’s no way an instructional blog can know that, and it might be discouraging to state that at the beginning; this kind of thing is generally normal in many things you can customize.
You can add a static home page in Setttings > Reading as stated in the instructions.
I created a page called “Blog” and linked to it, but I cannot figure out how to add blog posts to it, except to edit the “Blog” page as a static document. I cannot figure out how to link to blog entries.
My admin side bar doesn’t show me the reading tab everyone is referring to. I am using WordPress.com and want to post different blog posts to different pages. Just blog posts. Nothing else. Help Please. I have zero background in CSS or anything as such.
Thanks.
Hi IShita,
This article is about self hosted WordPress.org websites. Please see our guide on the difference between self hosted WordPress.org vs free WordPress.com blog.
Thanks so much for this info. Quick & easy fix
I set up my site similar to the video except that I have my posts as News, and they are pushed to the News page. However, once a user navigates away from the homepage to the News page, the menu breaks and they cannot get back home, unless by clicking the back button. I know this has something to do with my file hierarchy (as I installed wordpress to my server manually) but I can’t identify where to fix this. Anyone have an idea what I’m doing wrong? Much appreciated!
Problem solved, Thanks!
Still it not clear to me I have my own site at and it has some pages too but I want more pages for different section just like this site has “start here” deal and so on if create pages then how to add that blog to specific page, please explain in details….
This solved my problems, thanks
Thanks for all you great content. I’m shifting fra Joomla to WordPress, and I’m enjoying it – and you’re helping me on the way. Thanks so much.
I’ve build out a couple og blog pages on different sites new.
In Joomla I was used to sort pages with post by popularity so that the most visited (not the newest) where on top.
Do you know how this can be done in WordPress?
Thx Soren
This was just what I was looking for. I usually use WordPress templates that already have the blog page specified, but now I won’t need to do that. Thanks to your instructions, I can easily do it myself!
I have all of this set up, but now my header image will not show up on my posts page. It shows up on the backend (I use visual composer). But when I preview my blog page, it takes me to the homepage and when I actually go to my live blog page, the posts are there but not the header image.
Does it have something to do with my theme?
Thank you!
I have the exact same problem. There’s no header image on the blog page even though I have it set up on the page in wp-admin.
Thank you! This video was great, exactly what I was looking for!
I have static page for home page and blog page for all of default post..Now I want to display some post on my home page. How could I do it. Thanks
Hi Musa,
There are multiple ways to do that. You can use the Display Posts Shortcode plugin. You can also use the Recent Posts Extended Widget plugin.
hi WP beginners, how can i post multiple posts in a page. i have like sports, tech… but i can only post in the home page. please reply, thanks.