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.
Setting a Static Page as Homepage
- 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 Pages and then the sub-menu Add New. 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 then the Reading sub-panel. 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 the blog as 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
