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.
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.
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.
I don’t most of those settings as my WordPress looks nothing like that. Why is that, what can I do?
Hi Sian,
You are probably using WordPress.com. Please see our guide on the difference between self hosted WordPress.org vs free WordPress.com blog.
I have created separate pages for different subject areas and now want to add multiple posts to each subject area that will have different themes I.e. one of my pages is called museum trips and exhibition’s and on that page I want to add separate blogs or posts about different museums I have visited which will include photographs. how do I do this please?
Did you ever get an answer?? i am trying to do the same thing…google picks up your comment and brings me to this post.
Hello Leanne – I have just recently started to use “posts” instead of pages, except for 1 or 2 exceptions. You go into the Posts > Categories and create a parent category: Museum Trips. Then you can create another category and title it “Museums Visitied” (or somenthing of that nature) and make it a parent (by not checking any parent categories).Then when you make a post about Museum trips, check that category box “Museum Trips” in your post editor on the right near the page attributes. As well, when you make “Museums Visited” posts, you can check that box to indicate which category it goes under, which would be Museums Visited. Now go to your “Menus” and create menu items under the “category” panel just under the normal place of menus. You just check the boxes and then click”Add Menu Items” and then they will be linked just as any other menu link on your nav bar. When the menu links are clicked, you will see just the posts features under that particular category. It is a great way to “segment” your contents and organize them.
As you create posts about one subject or the other, just make sure you check which category it goes in and it will show up there in it’s separate feature page, just like you want.
You may have already figured this out, but I just now saw your post so I thought I would answer. Good Luck.
HELP!!!!!!!! THIS BROKE MY HOME PAGE!!!!!!!! I’ve now lost my actual home page where is it??? How do I undo this????????
Hey Kesley,
Start the tutorial again and undo the steps you took earlier.
hello, nice tips.
i would to ask you how to make my url is like this
mydomain.com/tutorial-web/post.html and not mydomain.com/category/tutorial-web/post.html
and if my visitor go to mydomain.com/tutorial-web/ the will find all post with ‘Tutorial Web’ category at that page
sorry for my bad english
Thanks for your tutorial, your website is amazing for beginner like me
Hi
This is a very useful post – except when I go on settings there literally isn’t a reading settings section. Can you help me?? I might just be being stupid but I need assistance asap
Thank you
Hi, thanks for your information, but I have a problem with the menu on my posts page in my wordpress.
Here is the thing… I created a new page for posts as you said and I set a menu I created for posts and pages (as secondary menu) and everything is fine with the menu until I switch that page to “Posts page” on “Settings > Reading”… When I do that, it changes the menu to my “primary menu” automatically and I don’t know what to do so that it takes the secondary menu…
Hope you can help me!
I’d actually already done what you said in this video, but isn’t working as I was expecting. It does put the blog to ./blog as expected, however you can still see the blog (and about and contact etc…) on the home page if you scroll down, and I was expecting to ONLY have the Home page visible. i.e. scroll down and only see the bottom of the home page. This is with the Twelve Seventeen theme (not sure if it’s related to that?). Is there a way to make ONLY the Home page display? (from the wording of the settings you’d think that’s what you’re doing, but that’s not what I see when done – see all the same stuff as before, but now the blog has a place of it’s own in addition)
How would you differentiate a home page verses an about page? I’ve read that both have a good bit of overlap.
hello WP beginners,
First of all I want to thanks for all wp tutorials. By watching your tutorials i have created a website + Blog . Its working fine. But i want to ask one thing. I have installed “bbpress” plugin for create forum in my website and when new users want to register in my blog then ” bbpress” not sending their passwords to their emails.
Can yo help me for that? how can i configure bbpress properly for new users registration.
Hi Krishna,
Please see our guide on how to fix WordPress not sending email issue.