How to Set Homepage in WordPress – Simple Steps to Create and Change Custom Front Page

Welcome to the Chapter 5 of our Ultimate WordPress Guide on Creating a WordPress website.

WordPress is one of the most used website platforms on the internet currently. Because of its ease to use and the versatility of it, WordPress has won the hundreds and thousand of users using it on a daily basis. Adding to the fact that it provides us with the platform to create any type of websites choosing from over thousands of templates and designs, it also gives us the option to create a custom landing page. The importance of a homepage lies far from what we tend to think of it. It can help reduce or boost traffic to your page. It is also the main element which helps you to reduce the bounce rates.

Why is an attractive Home Page Important?

For most websites, visitor land on their home or landing page first and it will obviously leave an impression. Although sometimes they land on the specific post that they selected, most of the time, they will be sure to check out your whole site.

To ensure any type of professionality and grab the attention of your viewers, it is important to have an attractive and appealing home page. Instead of the regular default setting of showing your recent posts in a list, it is better for you to make your website more user-friendly and easier to manage with a custom homepage. In any business, visual appeal is what that matters the most. The same goes for your website. If your website shows the interesting and appealing part of it, visitors are likely to check out your other works.

To gain more traffic and to encourage user interaction, it is very important for your site to be efficient and attractive. And the main element of this is the custom homepage that you can create for yourself.

Creating A Custom Homepage

You can find templates or themes that are either free or premium. After setting the theme to your liking, you will likely need to create or customize the homepage. Most of the time you miss the smallest of details, so covering each one of them, we have created this step-by-step guide to help you create a custom homepage.

While most templates come with customizable templates, you might come across some that don’t. Your WordPress site usually displays the list of latest posts of your blog by default. To change this, you can set a static homepage. Follow the directions below to create your own custom homepage.

Step-By-Step Beginners Guide to Create a Custom Homepage

First, login to your admin WordPress account and go to your dashboard.

Select the option for an Add a New Page and you can name this page “Home”.

This will lead you to a blank canvas where you can create any layout that you like. You can add shortcodes, graphics using different plugins available. After this, make sure you publish this by clicking on the Publish button on the right side.

Then find the option for Settings in the left admin panel. Click on the Reading settings which is the third on the list. After being redirected to the Reading Settings, click the option for A Static Page on the first option. Select your newly made page named “Home” using the Front Page drop down menu.

Save Changes to your newly created custom homepage is ready.

If you want to add a new page to your site for your blog, you will be happy to know that the WordPress platform allows you to do so as well. For this, follow the step-by-step guide below.

How to Create a Blog Page on your WordPress Website

• Login to your WordPress account and go to your Dashboard.
• Just as above, select the option for Add a New Page and name this page “Blog”. Be sure to publish this page.
• Launch the Site Customizer, and go to the Static Front Page tab located on the left side.
• You can then choose the new page from the Posts Page Drop down menu.
• Finally go ahead and save and publish the changes.
• Your newly made blog page is ready.

It looks all very simple. Doesn’t it? 🙂

Wrapping Up

Concluding it all, you now have the idea of why is a customized and appealing homepage one of the major necessities of a WordPress website. Build your business, get more visitors and traffic to your page. Build and customize your own custom homepage and a blog page as per your requirement. Try out different themes that might work for you! Hope this article helped!

Thanks for reading the chapter 5 of our ultimate WordPress guide on creating a WordPress site.