Create A Custom WordPress Static Front Page

With the growing popularity of blogs everyday more people are getting familiar with, and comfortable using the various blogging platforms. With that webmasters are turning to content management systems like WordPress to power entire websites.

One of the options of WordPress is to choose a static front page, creating a page that shows the same content instead of the the blog loop. Most WordPress bloggers are familiar with this option, however a few things should be considered beforehand.

The steps to use a static front page are quite simple: first two pages (not posts) need to be created, one for the static front page and another for the blog loop. The static front page can have whatever title you want but I suggest you call it the title of your website. Add all the content on this page that you want to show on the front page. Title the blog page “Blog” with the same page slug. Add no content to the blog page.

Go to Settings, then the reading subpanel, select the static front page option and choose the respective pages to use from the drop down box. Now here is where your blog theme comes into play. If your theme has a navigation bar in the header, things can get a bit messy here and my require you to customize the theme.

The navigation bar on most WordPress themes have a Home or Blog link that point to the main URL and also show links to any additional pages created. So adding a Home page or Blog page to use the static front page option my show these links twice in the navigation bar. So you may want consider learning how to change this by hard coding the navigation bar in the themes header.php file.

Another thing to consider is the static front page itself and what you want it to look like. While you probably want it to have the same look as the rest of the site you may not want it to show the same sidebar items or the title of the page just above the content.

One thing I suggest changing, or actually removing, is the title of the the page that appears right above the content on the page. If you want the site to look like a static or “regular” website then you may want to remove this, especially if the title of the page is generic like “Home”.

You have two options for removing the title on the front page, one is to edit the page.php template to remove the title on all pages or create a custom page template to use for the static front page. The code to be removed from the page.php file should look something like this:

<h2 id=”post-<?php the_ID(); ?>”><a href=”<?php the_permalink() ?>” rel=”bookmark” title=’Permanent Link to “<?php the_title(); ?>”‘><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>

You may also want to create a different sidebar for the static front page and this option would definitely require a different custom page template, another sidebar file and possibly some additional code added to the functions.php file.

As you can see using a static front page to run your website can be as easy as creating a few pages and changing a few options or you could get into some custom coding to really make it stand out and be different. All of the information you need to customize your WordPress powered site can be found online and I suggest starting at wordpress.org. One of the steps is covered here: How To Create A Custom WordPress Page Template

Similar Posts:



Tags: ,

If you liked this post, feel free to leave a comment that is relevant to the post or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Sorry but due to the spamming of a few all comments are moderated and will appear when approved and all drive-by comments will be deleted!

Comments

Thanks for the tip! I might do this for my blog sometime.

Thanks again!

Reply

This is a great way to customize Wordpress as a CMS.

I don’t really understand why most people think Wordpress is a blogging platform and is not fit for static sites or to be used as a CMS.

I still think Wordpress is the best platform out there!

Reply

I never under estimate wordpress, Its more than just creating a blog. Wordpress can be customised or modified the way you want. I have implement it on one of my websites here London Theatre Tickets. Its the most flexible way of getting your site online asap.

Reply

Thanks for the post!

Reply

I’m sure going to do this

Reply

useful tips, I really thank to you, I have use it to modify my blog technology and gadget review, waiting another tips

Reply

Thanks for the information, I was having some trouble with it.

I tried many things but there was no use.

The code worked fine, tried it now.

Reply

Word press is really something more than a blog where you can also customizing the things which you’ve made and that is the best thing I’ve found in it. I’ll try for this.

Reply

Word press is really something more than a blog where you can also customize the things which you’ve made and that is the best thing I’ve found in it.

I’ll try for this one.

Reply

Thanks for the tip!

Reply

use static content with wordpress is easy but it seem that not pretty well , as i know many people not use static page with wordpress !

Reply

In terms of SEO, what are the benefits of a Static front page?

PS. Thanks for the advice.

Reply

Scott I don’t think it matters if the front page is static or the typical blog loop.

Reply

yeah.. thnkz !! and nice tip !!

Reply

Great tip !!

Reply

thks for this articles,

this very helpfull…

Reply

I am trying this on my entry for the Busby SEO Test blog. I will let you know how it goes.

Thanks for the advice.

Reply

nice post, thank you for sharing :D

Reply

good post thank you

Reply

Thank you for this advice That was very interesting and informative

Reply

thanks for this tips.

Reply

i am newbie here, just want to check what is the advantage using static page?

Reply

There is no real advantage using a static front page. Its a preference to use one depending on how you want to present your blog. Or if you what to use the blog more like a website.

Reply

Good advice, thanks.

Reply

thanks for this information. It’s helpfull for me.

Reply

nice post, thank you for sharing

Reply

it is look nice if we can customize the wordpress look a like website.

Reply

Thanks for the tips. This is awesome!

Reply

It helps a blogger a lot…tnx

Reply

Its a preference to use one depending on how you want to present your blog.

Reply

great tip, i’ll try iy asap. :)

Reply

Thx for sharing nice info.

Reply

It is nice to know that there is a new thing in this stuff, i am happy that i could use this as well in my needs…:)

Reply

Thanks I have been wanting to do some thing like this with a few of my sites

Reply

thanks for sharing

Reply

strange having problems =S

Reply

thnaks you for the nice tut.
Greets Pension Bayern

Reply

Nice posting thx for sharing and happy blogging

Reply

Nice post. Very useful. I have an blog powered by Wordpress. Static front page will definitely be an advantage to my site. Thanks for sharing the information.

Reply

i have tried this tip and works well. thanks!

Reply

Yess…great tips..thanks for sharing…well done!

Reply

Thank you very much for this valuable information!

Reply

Good advice, thanks for written.
Greets Landhotel

Reply

Good advice as usual!

Reply

I found information needed to customize WordPress powered site can be hard found online

Reply

Thanks for the information. It’s nice to know that Wordpress will allow you to create a static front page… gives it the look/feel of a “real” website. Thanks!!

Reply

Static front page could be something that Google prefers I suggest.

Reply

I’m not even use static front page.,but thanks for this. I got a lot of info.

Reply

Nice post. Very useful information. I don’t have a static front page yet. So I will give it a try and see. Thanks for sharing it with us. Cheers.

Reply

great walkthrough in making a static page for wordpress!-

Reply

Nice posting thx for sharing and happy blogging
your writing is so usefull for me

Reply

Thank you for sharing ..
i will try this in my blog ..
I just know from this blog how to do it

Reply

Great this ..
This is what i’m looking for ..
i will try in my blog ..
thank you for sharing this wordpress static front page how to do …

Reply

This is the Tips that I looking for, thanks I’ll try it, thanks a bundle!

Reply

now i find what i want to know.. thank you for this informations..

Reply

I guess static homepage could increase SERP ranking right?

Reply

Jeff  Replied:

No I didn’t say that a static home page would increase SERP rankings and I doubt it will. I am not a Google Guru and even Google can’t (or wont) tell you that. What I will tell you is good, solid, original, link bait type content posted on on a consistent basis is what the people want. Do that on a consistent basis and you will have no problems. No matter if you use a static front page or not.

Reply

I left his comment to show everyone what what a Drive-By comment is. Aleif doesn’t know anything about proper punctuation, (didn’t even capitalize his name) and didn’t reference the post, nice try but I removed your link.

Next time try to actually contribute to the discussion or don’t bother leaving a comment.

Reply

It’s Very usefull to newbie like me.. i’ve read many tips blog but i can find here.. thank you

Reply

thanks for the tips…^^

Reply

great article, thanks for share

Reply

Nice post…thanks for share

Reply

thanks for this good advice.

Reply

really helpful for creating a static page. worked for me

Reply

Nice sharing… Thank you.
I’ll try to customize my theme to show up the static page :)

Reply

nice wordpress tip, thx :)

Reply

Thanks for the tip. I was trying to figure this out and put many hours into. Thanks again.

Reply

I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my delicious. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.

Reply

it seems interesting, i am gonna try it asap. thanks.

Reply

very usefull for me, thanks for sharing!

Reply

that’s great. i have tried and it works well.

Reply

this is exactly what i have been looking for forever. i guess its for wordpress.org, not .com thanks for the instructions, its so easy to use wordpress as a site, great technology.

Reply

is it will make our SEO better?

Reply

Jeff  Replied:

It has nothing to do with SEO. SEO is up to how WordPress is setup and used.

Reply

Pennsylvania Medical Malpractice  Replied:

Yea it ain’t got anything to do with SEO… You’ll just have regular home page instead of a blog..

Reply

Interesting. I really have found a static front page really nice as it does give a really different effect to the page before the homepage is shown. Also a flash intro would be also cool. Anyway, thanks for the information. I shall try this out and see. Thanks again.

Reply

This is so cool. I appreciate it and am have to try it.

Reply

Thanks for the write up. I found it didn’t work without a bit of extra work. The blog page did not display correctly until I did the following:

- Give the main index page a template name
- Use that page template for the blog page
- Add query_posts above the main loop
- Set global $more = 0 before displaying the content.

Reply

Jeff  Replied:

Bev, this post is a “general” guide and is not theme specific so I couldn’t possible cover all the thousands of different themes out there. And what is needed on your specific theme may not be the same for another.

Reply

Bev  Replied:

I can certainly understand that. I thought my post might help others with the same problem.

Reply

this is exactly what i have been looking for forever. i guess its for wordpress.org, not .com thanks for the instructions, its so easy to use wordpress as a site, great technology

Reply

really interesting post. it will be really useful for people who need this. looking forward to see more of this kind.
thanks.

Reply

is h2 have a same effect with h3,h4, and h5?

Reply

Jeff  Replied:

It all depends on the theme, and usually all are different. If all the H tags were the same there wouldn’t be any need for so many of them now would there?

Reply

Hello,

Thanks for sharing this. However it doesn’t really solve the main reason why people want to have a static page. Usually people want a static page so that they can display their content in a whole different way. Like for example problogger.net. His homepage is different from the content, however it also isn’t just “another” page.

Regards.

Reply

Jeff  Replied:

What does that even mean????

I didn’t know I needed to “Solve” why people want a static front page. Sorry next time I will try post everything about everything for everyone.

Reply

Nice post…..that’s alternate static page from wordpress

Reply

i’m using wp-sticky plugin to sticky my post

Reply

Thanks for the information, I was having some trouble with it.

I tried many things but there was no use.

The code worked fine, tried it now.

Reply

Great tutorial. I made a static page based on your posting with little modification.

Reply

That’s a super awesome tutorial. Really grateful to you for writing such an awesome article. Certainly will help my mates out. Your blog is filled with loads of stuff they need. Thanks again man.

Reply

I didn’t know that a WP site/blog can have a static front page until I read this article, thanks for sharing such a great article and I’m always looking forward for the next article.

Reply

“I have searched the net and I should say I have not come across an article like this which is so easy to understand and learn the concepts”

Reply

The steps to use a static front page are quite simple: first two pages (not posts) need to be created, one for the static front page and another for the blog loop. The static front page can have whatever title you want but I suggest you call it the title of your website. Add all the content on this page that you want to show on the front page. Title the blog page “Blog” with the same page slug. Add no content to the blog page.

“Awesome article dude. I will let my site visitor read this?
thanks if you can help us.”

Reply

Thanks for the information, I was having some trouble with it.

Reply

Thank you for the information ..
It’s very usefull for A wordpress beginner like me …
Keep good articles

Reply

Thanks for the information.. I was always wondering how to get a regular front page up rather then a blog. This is gonna help out a lot…

Reply

Thanks for sharing, although I think that leaving the default wordpress loop as the front page would be more SEO rich…

Reply

I don’t think wordpress is as SEO friendly as many other blog platforms, but they are getting better at it.

Reply

Creating static html pages is good idea and you have explained every thing in a very simple manner but I am little bit in hesitation.

Is it effect the ranking in search engine result or Google page rank? And if the answer is yes then how, up or down.

Reply

Jeff  Replied:

It depends on how you SEO the WordPress blog just as you do an HTML page. Basically correctly using the All In One SEO plugin and then all your other typical off page techniques.

Reply

the most popular around the world is wordpress and of course with the friendly seo we can make a nice static page with wordpress platform plus useful plugin seo wp. thanks for sharing these informations.

Reply

I have some trouble with wordpess but this tips help me..thanks for sharing..

Reply

this is what i’ve been looking for … thanks

Reply

Bro. I just followed your static frontpage. Please look at my Internet Marketing blog, I used the static frontpage to display some of my post. And tanan! It’s now magazine looking. haha.

Thank you very much.

Reply

oh thx for sharing. I just want to check what is the advantage using static page..

Reply

I’ve just made my own wordpress, but until now, I’m a bit confused about how to edit wordpress’HTML. Mybe later I’ll try this.

Reply

Wordpress is powerful and highly configurable system if you can use it along with right addons and some tweaking.

Reply

wordpress is very simple….

Reply

Vladimir Khontol  Replied:

though it’s pretty simple, but wordpress is so powerful. i like it very much.

Reply

wordpress is very powerful blog engine,

Reply

Well, never used static page before.. But it looks like interesting.. I’m gonna try it!

Reply

Static frontpage, it sounds interesting, but will our visitors think that our blog never been update? Because I’ve visited a blog with static frontpage, I thought that the blog never been update, but the fact is it constantly up date after I check its sitemap, maybe according to your explanation the navigation of the blog should be placed rightly. Anyway thank you for your explanation.

Reply

Jeff  Replied:

If the “Recent Posts” or more importantly the blogs RSS feed subscription options are strategically placed on an easily noticeable area of the sites sidebar then the visitors should be smart enough to figure it out. Of course you need to be smart enough to offer those options to keep your visitors up to date and interested…

Reply

I am trying this on my entry for the Busby SEO Test blog. I will let you know how it goes.

Reply

Thanks Jeff for the tut to create static Pages in Wordpress.
Greets Bayerischer Wald

Reply

It seems that static page useful only on several niche blog? Am I right?

Reply

static page is SEO friendly

Reply

what’s different between static page and non?

Reply

static page is better

Reply

you need both, static and non static pages i think.

Reply

Thanks for the tip.
I was trying to figure this out and put many hours into. Thanks again.

Reply

Jeff  Replied:

You have a WordPress blog but leave a Blogspot.com link on your comment? Ummm…. I’m thinking No Link For You!

Reply

I have a couple of wp blogs and a WPMU blog as well and I don’t know if it’s just on WPMU but they make it a lot easier to create a static home page – you simply put in the url or choose a precreated WP page from a drop down list.

Also, in response to Sukabumi who says a static page is SEO friendly, I would imagine it actually helps to have more dynamic content? I suppose it really depends on a blog which is more useful.

Reply

Finally I found this trick, Thanks for sharing.

Reply

wordpress is great cms program

Reply

A relly good post. Now we knew more about how to custom our wp static page with your tips. Thanks a lot.

Reply

This trick help my wp blog… thanks…

Reply

i have tried this tip and works well. thanks!

Reply

nice posting, keep writing thanks for sharing… thank you

Reply

The static front page can have whatever title you want but I suggest you call it the title of your website.

Reply

Hi,
thanks for sharing your knowledge by posting custom wp static front page. it is really useful for me and will try to apply it on my blog Rusli Zainal Sang Visioner

Reply

Nice tips jeff, im learning on using wordpress as cms, still a litle blind about page template though

Reply

Great post, this is very useful because many wordpress owners don’t want to have their home page always changing – they will want to sell a product or put something in front of visitors on each visit.

Reply

I’ve been trying to make a static front page, this is the correct guide for me.

Reply

It’s nice to know that Wordpress will allow you to create a static front page… gives it the look/feel of a “real” website. thanks for information.

Reply

I have been searching for a tutorial on creating a static frontpage. Fortunately, i have found helpful guide in here. I am also wanna ask. Is static page more SEO friendly than non static page? Thanks before.

Reply

Jeff  Replied:

I don’t really know.

Reply

if you want to use static frontpage, the navigation of the blog should be placed rightly. Otherwise our visitors think that our blog never been updated.

Reply

Hello jeff..i have tried this tip and works well. thanks!

Reply

if you want to use static frontpage, the navigation of the blog should be placed rightly. Otherwise our visitors think that our blog never been updated.

Reply

i’m using sticky plugin to make static page

Reply

Hi,
thanks for sharing your knowledge by posting custom wp static front page. it is really useful for me and will try to apply it on my blog Rusli Zainal Sang Visioner

Reply

I am trying this on my entry for the Busby SEO Test blog. I will let you know how it goes.

Reply

Wordpress is the besssssssst i really love it , best script i ever seen or used !!!!

Reply

Hi,
thanks for sharing your knowledge by posting custom wp static front page. it is really useful for me and will try to apply it on my blog Rusli Zainal Sang Visioner

Reply

if you want to use static frontpage, the navigation of the blog should be placed rightly. Otherwise our visitors think that our blog never been updated

منتديات,فحص
البيج رانك
,دليل مواقع

Reply

Although it seems simple, creating a static Wordpress front page can get tricky. Thanks for the tutorial!

Reply

This is a good tweak for wordpress.

I look forward to more tips and guide from you regarding wordpress.

regards,
ASHISH THAKKAR

Reply

wow, i’ve been a while looking for this one, thanks. I am gonna try it asap. Hope will work for me.

Reply

Although it seems simple, creating a static Wordpress front page can get tricky. Thanks for the tutorial!

Reply

Although it seems simple, creating a static Wordpress front page can get tricky. Thanks for the tutorial!

Reply

Good stuff. I use wordpress for all my websites and I have recently started using static page. I find it gives me more control over what I get on my front page.

Reply

Although it seems simple, creating a static Wordpress front page can get tricky. Thanks for the tutorial!

Reply

great post bro,thanks for sharing your knowledge by posting custom wp static front page. it is really useful

Reply

wordpress seo  Replied:

i agree with you, with this will be easy enough to get it done.

Reply

Thanks for sharing static frontpage. It’s useful & really helpful.

Reply

“So you may want consider learning how to change this by hard coding the navigation bar in the themes header.php file.”

Any samples on how to do this? I’m having double home page issues.

Thanks,
Jacci

Reply

Hi,
thank for sharing custom wordpress static front page, it is really useful.

However, using static or page in wordpress has a weakness, less SEO friendly and more difficult to get indexed by search engine compare with dynamic.

Reply

Jeff  Replied:

While WordPress sites seem to get indexed faster than a static HTML site I have no way to qualify that. My point would be the social aspects that can be incorporated into a WP site or blogs in general such as pinging and social bookmarking.

I tend to agree that static content, like using a static front page on a WP site, may reduce Google page rank. But you could do both and use static content as well as recent posts on the static front page, rendering your point moot and having the best of both.

There are, of course other factors determining page rank, such as backlinks and good original content. Even if you use a static front page and if you setup, optimize and post regularly on the WP site, even if the posts are not on the main page, Google will find it.

Reply

Leave a comment
Drive-By comments will be deleted! Like "Thanks for sharing", "Nice post", or any other text that doesn't contribute to the discussion. If you ask a very specific question about your particular WordPress theme, it will probably be deleted. I can fix your WordPress site but for a price. If you ask a question like "Why don't my blog work right", it will be deleted. If you ask a question about your WordPress site without a leaving a link to it, it will be deleted. The point is to ask questions and or comment on the the actual content of the post, and to please use some common sense. All comments are moderated and will appear when approved. Thank you.

(required)

(required)