How To Use A Static Front Page With WordPress

Posted by Jeff

on November 6, 2007

There may be a reason that you want to use the flexibility of WordPress to run a website but don’t want the main page to “look” like a blog. WordPress offers the option to use a static front page. This front page can be easily created like a blog post, it can have the same look as your blog, with the same sidebar items or it can have a completely different look all together. This WordPress guide and the link to another at the end of it will show you how.

If you want to use a static front page for your WordPress blog you will first need to create it. From the WordPress dashboard click Write and then the sub-menu Write Page. Create your new page just like you would a post and publish it.

Now you need to create another regular page for the URL, or the holder (for lack of a better term) for regular blog posts main URL. Create a new page and give it the title blog, or anything you want. Again don’t bother writing any content, on the right side type the same name as the title in the Post Slug box and click publish.

Now to specify using a static front page, click Settings or Options then the Reading subpanel. Choose the Static Page option, specify your new page (not the blog page) as the front page and the newly created blog page as the Posts Page and click Update Options.

Now your blog will always show the same page as the front page. But what about your blog? Where did it go? If you followed my directions and used blog as the the Posts Page the URL should be YourBlogsURL.com/blog. If your blog is in a directory called blog then the URL will be YourBlogsURL.com/blog/blog. Having a blog/blog URL isn’t all that cool huh? Well this is intended for use on a website ran entirely on WordPress without a static HTML front page. But you can use a different name in the title and Post Slug when you create the new Posts Page.

You could even use WordPress like a regular website by just creating new pages and no actual blog posts with this option.

If you want to customize your static front page, a related post with a video can be found here: How To Create A Custom WordPress Page Template

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Comments

Pingback by Removing The Title of WordPress Pages | WordPress Max on December 13, 2007 @ 8:42 pm

[...] a few other posts: How To Use A Static Front Page With WordPress and: How To Create A Custom WordPress Page Template I cover how to create and use a static front [...]

Pingback by WordPress New Blog Options Checklist | WordPress Max on February 10, 2008 @ 5:46 pm

[...] The next Options subpanel to click is the Reading subpanel. Clicking it will give you the option to use a static front page for your blog. This will show a page that you create instead of the regular blog loop. To learn how to properly use the static front page option check out this post: How To Use A Static Front Page With WordPress. [...]

Comment by stratosg on May 19, 2008 @ 4:50 am

thx man… very nice and helpfull post.

Comment by Chelle on June 21, 2008 @ 6:39 pm

This is helpful info! Thanks a bunch! I can’t tell you how delighted I am that I typed in “create a static page in wordpress” and the first thing I clicked on actually had relevant, useful information!

Comment by VW on December 10, 2008 @ 9:23 am

this is really awesome article..
thanks for sharing..
regards,
VW

Comment by kitchen on January 15, 2009 @ 4:30 am

Wow very nicely written Going to share this with my readers on my site, thanks!

Comment by car accessory on January 20, 2009 @ 10:32 am

So glad i found this post, saved me lots of messing about trying to work it out for myself, cheers guys

Comment by NYC Limo, LGA Limo, JFK Limo on February 10, 2009 @ 5:26 am

Nice article, the information was really useful. Was searching for a way to achieve this. Your article was a life saver. Thanks.

Comment by Build a Deer Blind on February 11, 2009 @ 8:55 am

Great information, this sorted a long standing problem for me. Thanks.

Comment by Andreas from Milos on March 29, 2009 @ 5:31 am

Very Helpful. I’m not really aware d much about the features that wordpress allows us to do. With articles like this it provides a lot of background knowledge to use wordpress. Thanks a lot. Really Appreciate it.

Comment by New York City on August 25, 2009 @ 12:05 pm

Static front pages are underrated. They may not be flashy, but they’re reliable, solid, and easy to edit.

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.