When WordPress is installed in your hosting account, the (default) settings are to display your blog posts on the Home Page. Oftentimes, people want the Home Page to be static so that it displays a Welcome message, and then the rest of the website can act like a blog.
To make a static Home Page in WordPress is very simple.
First, create a Page (not a Post – See WordPress Blog: Posts vs Pages.) Save the Page under any name, say…Welcome. Edit the Page and add your welcome message and graphics. Save/Publish the Page.
Click on the Settings tab on the left towards the bottom of all the Dashboard menus. When the drop-down menu displays, click Reading. Here’s what it looks like before changes are made.
Front Page displays -> “Your latest posts” option is selected.
Click the next option -> A static page (select below).
Pull down the Front Page selection list and select the Name of the Page you just created.
Click Save Changes at the bottom and View your website. Voila! You have a new static Home Page.
That is all there is to creating a static home page for your WordPress blog!
You’ve accomplished your goal…Now let’s do a little clean up …
You just told WordPress to NOT display your blog posts on the Home page, but, instead, to display your static Welcome message… You didn’t tell WordPress where to display your blog posts now that you have removed them from their default location…So let’s take care of that.
Create another Page.
You can give the Page any name like…Blog Posts. I recommend giving it a meaningful name; something that has to do with your keyword list… I used Web News and Blogs which was appropriate when my blog was created. If you are trying to brand your name, then YourFirstName YourLastName Blog would be good.
Save/Publish the page. You can write a note in the page that reminds you (six months to a year down the road) “Do not delete. This is my blog page.” Whatever you write will not display.
Go back to Settings and click on Reading.
Pull down the Posts Page selection list (below the Front Page selection list you used above) and select the Name of the Page you just created.
Click Save Changes at the bottom and View your website. You now have a static Home Page and a Blog page.
Here’s what the WordPress Reading Settings look like now:
Depending on the Theme you used for your WordPress blog, the Welcome and Blog Posts pages you just created may now appear in a list of Pages for your website. Later this week, we’ll learn how to make those NOT display in that list.