How to Set and Edit Homepage in WordPress

If you’re looking for a way to capture the attention of your site visitors, you should consider creating a well-designed homepage. By the end of this article, you’ll understand what it takes to set up and edit your homepage in WordPress!

Why Would You Set and Edit the Homepage?

If you own a blog, you might be okay with the default homepage that shows your recent posts. However, you’ll say otherwise if you make a website for other purposes, such as promoting products or growing an email list.

Thus, it’s essential to learn how to set up a static homepage, where you can customize the content to your liking and add anything you want. For instance, you can place a product gallery or testimonies from your clients, and add elements like menu and widgets to help visitors navigate your site.

It’s also important to edit your homepage and make sure it’s clutter-free. Don’t put too much content, avoid using distracting images, and remove unnecessary elements like page title (read this article to know how).

Setting a static homepage for your site is perhaps the most important step to customize a WordPress site. If you look around at other successful websites, you’ll notice they always have a custom homepage linking to their most important pages. Even blogs do this instead of displaying a list of their newest posts.

Above all, don’t forget to put yourself in the visitor’s shoes. Look at the overall design, and try to pique their interests so they would love to dive deeper into your website.

How to Set a Static Homepage in WordPress

For starters, you need to have a page that is set as the homepage. Follow these steps to know how to create one:

1. Enter your WordPress admin dashboard and navigate to Pages > Add New.
2. Insert content like texts and images (don’t worry, you can add it later). Once you’re done, hit Publish.
   
3. Go to Settings > Reading.
4. Choose A static page as your homepage display, and choose your newly-created page as the Homepage.
   
5. Don’t forget to hit Save Changes.

On the other hand, if you want to set your blog as the homepage, the steps will be slightly different. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Go to Settings > Reading.
2. Select Your latest posts as your homepage display.
3. Set how many posts you want to show by entering the desired number into the Blog pages show at the most field.
4. Determine how the posts will be displayed. You can show the full text or just the summary (teaser):
   
5. Save the changes. Your posts are now available on the homepage.

How to Edit Your Homepage

Although we’ve shown you how to set your blog as the homepage, it’s recommended to use a static homepage. Aside from being more eye-catching, you can use it to tell the readers what your website is all about.

Fortunately, editing a static homepage has never been easier thanks to drag-and-drop page builders like Elementor and Beaver Builder. You can craft a beautiful layout without any coding skills, and place any content like texts and images with a few clicks.

Alternatively, you can edit some aspects of the homepage without a page builder, such as menu and widgets. Let’s see how to do it on the WordPress admin dashboard!

Customizing the Menu

The purpose of a menu is to help visitors navigate your site by showing a list of pages, such as About us, Products, Blog, and Contact us. As a result, you can lead visitors to view other parts of your site.

Read on to see how to create and customize a menu:

1. Go to your WordPress admin dashboard.
2. Navigate to Appearance > Menus.
3. Under the Menu Structure section, type in your menu name, then click Create Menu.
4. From the Add menu items on the left column, choose the items you want to include in the menu (pages, posts, custom links, and categories). Tick the options and press Add to menu.
5. Drag and drop each item to arrange the menu structure.
   
6. Scroll down to the Menu Settings and determine the menu’s location. For instance, you can set it as the Primary menu or the Footer menu. Once done, save the changes.

Here’s how the menu looks on the homepage (the style and location might be different based on your site’s theme):

Adding Widgets

Widgets are blocks that will add more features to your pages, such as a navigation menu and calendar. You can place them on the sidebar or footer of your homepage.

1. On your WordPress admin dashboard, navigate to Appearances > Widgets.
2. Among the available widgets, pick ones you want to add. For example, let’s add a calendar widget to your homepage’s sidebar.
3. Select the calendar widget, choose Sidebar, and click Add Widget.
   
4. That’s it! Now you’ll see the calendar widget on the sidebar.
   

Similar to the WordPress menu, the widget area also depends on your theme.

In Conclusion

As the front door of your site, the homepage holds an essential role in capturing your visitor’s interest. Thus, it’s crucial to understand how to set one up and customize its design and elements.

We hope this article is helpful and you’ll be able to create a better homepage for your site. Good luck!

Simon Dwight Keller

I am a digital marketing entrepreneur eager to drive tons of traffic to your website with creative and compelling content.  After three years of hard work as a freelancer, I decided to take up my services to the next level, I co-founded a digital marketing company PRable. Eventually, I felt that in order to achieve more, I had to start my own company – SDK Marketing. With my small albeit professional team I am ready to take on new challenges, increase your traffic and drive more revenue. Besides my burning passion for SEO, I am interested in ice hockey and traveling.

If you would like to know my story, visit my page – https://simondwightkeller.com/