Reading-Settings Front Page

WordPress is a very flexible platform for creating full-blown websites, not just blogging sites. This page will show you how to change the “front page” of your website.

As we have said before, WordPress provides two primary content types for you two work with: posts and pages. Posts, as in blog posts, are a somewhat complex form of a webpage. Each blog post gets published in reverse chronological order, on the front page of a WordPress site. You write a new post, and it gets published at the top of the front page. Pages are a more static form of content. They are additional areas to put information that doesn’t change much. So what if you would like to make the front page of your WordPress site based on a page instead of your blog posts?

  • Start at the Dashboard.
Screen shot of WordPress Dashboard
  • Navigate to Settings > Reading.
screen shot of WordPress reading settings
  • Normally, the front page displays your latest blog posts. What we want to do instead is select a Page from the website. Obviously, this page has to exist before you can select it. Select the “A static page” radio button and choose the About page from the Front page drop-down menu (an About page was created for you when you installed WordPress). Press the Save Changes button and now you will have the “About” page as your Front page. Edit it as you see fit and provide a good welcoming page for your visitors.
screen shot of Word press reading settings
  • But wait. What will happen to your blog posts? Most people will want them as the “dynamic” part of your site. First, create a new Page.
screen shot of
  • Title it Blog (you can title it whatever you want but Blog is common and descriptive). Leave the page blank (don’t type any text in the edit box) and Publish it.
screen shot of adding a new post
  • Now go back to Settings > Reading. Under the static page area choose Blog from the Posts page drop-down.
select new WP post page
  • Click the Save Changes button. Now your “home” page will actually display the About page. You will also have a Blog item in your menu (depending on your theme, you may have to customize your page display to see pages).
  • If you click on the Blog menu item, you will then see your blog posts. Notice the /blog added to the web address.