When setting up the home page for your website, you have a couple of different ways that you can do so. The first option is to go ahead and create a static page that will be used as a home page. The next option is to display your site’s latest blog posts on the homepage. Whichever option you decide to go with, will be determined base on the requirements of the site and what you want to achieve at the end of the day. Throughout this article, we will provide you with the steps that you must follow when setting up the home page of your WordPress website. By following the bellow outlined steps, you will learn How To Setup Your Home Page (Static vs Blog Roll).
What Is a Website Home Page & What is Its Purpose?
A home page is one of the first things that your visitors see. It is usually the most popular page on your website. With this being the case, it is super important that this page is designed in such a way that caters to your audience.
Which is better, a Static Home Page or a Blog-Roll Type Page? – How To Setup Your Home Page (Static vs Blog Roll)
Both blog roll and static home page types have their pros and cons. When deciding which type of page to go with, it is important to have a really good idea on what type of site you are designing.
Websites that utilize a blog-roll type of a page are typically sites that are considered to be Blogs. What the blog roll page does, is that it displays your site’s blog posts according to the order in which they were written. You can either show full blog posts on your home page (one after another), or you can show your posts via an “Excerpt” format. When showing excerpts of posts, only small parts of the post will be shown along with a “Read More” button on the bottom.
If you are serious about your site and are 100% treating it as a business site, then utilizing the Static Page for your homepage is probably a better option. There are many things that you can do with a static page. You can design it whichever way you want it to look, you can customize it via tools such as “Elementor”. Quite often, you can also edit this static home page via the Widget’s options in the Customization section of your Appearance menu in the WordPress Dashboard.
How to Create & Add a Static Page to Your WordPress Site?
The cool thing about Static home pages, is that you can actually create them with ease. Take a look below for step by step instructions on how to create and add a static home page to your WordPress site.
- How to create a Static Page for Your Home?
- The first step in creating a new Static Page is to go ahead and log into your WordPress website. Once you are logged in, you will end up on the WordPress Dashboard.
- The second step is to go to the Pages Section of the Dashboard (on the left side) and select “add a new page”.
- On the next screen, you will see the new static page come up that you will be using for your website’s home page. This new page will need to be designed and configured to make it look exactly how you want it to look. I recommend that you get a plugin for page design called “Elementor”. This plugin really is a life saver and will make your life much easier when trying to design that page.
- When finished with the design, go ahead and save the page with the name of “Home”.
- How to make your Static Page the default Page for your Website’s Homepage?
- On the WordPress Dashboard, go to the left hand side and mouse over the Appearance settings. Here, you will need to click on the “Customize” option.
- Once in the Customization screen, you should see an option or setting that says something along the lines of “Home Page settings”. Go ahead and click on that
- Under these “Home Page Settings”, you will need to select the “Static Page” option as your primary home page.
- Go ahead and pick the new page that you just built as your Static Home Page.
- You will be able to preview the changes as you make them here via the Customization Screen.
- Once you are satisfied with the look of the homepage, go ahead and click on the “Publish” button.
- You are all set.
When adding a static page as your main home page on your site, you should always look into optimizing this new static content so that the search engines have an easier time of finding your new page.
How to Add a Blog-Roll Page to Your WordPress Website?
Similar to a static home page, you also have the ability to create a blog roll page and have it shown as the main page for your WordPress website’s home page. As mentioned earlier, a Blog-Roll page allows you to display all of your latest blog posts to your users all in one place.
To setup your home page as a Blog-Roll, follow the below instructions.
- Within your WordPress Dashboard (on the left side), go ahead and mouse over the “Settings” button, and click on the Reading option.
- Here on the Reading settings, you can select the “Your latest posts” radio button under the “Your homepage displays” Reading settings.
- By selecting this “Your latest posts” radio button and saving the settings, you will now start displaying your latest posts on your homepage by default. What this means, is that every time you have a new posts that you publish, it will show up on your homepage for your visitors to see.
Conclusion
Now that you have a clearer picture about this whole home page stuff, you can start working on either the static page option or setting the latest posts to become your home page option. You have complete freedom to personalize your website’s home page to your exact liking. All you have to do is to figure out exactly how you want your site’s home page to look, and then go ahead and pick the appropriate type of page to use.
More about setting statis home pages for your WordPress site here.
