Wordpress Static Front Page
The Problem: Disorganized Blog
My dog blog is my highest earning blog right now. I have a feeling that it could earn even more if I spent a little time on improving it, so that’s what I have been working on lately.
I didn’t give too much thought to the blog’s structure when I first started it. The result is that some of the best content is buried deep within.
When you got to the front page of the blog, all you could see was the latest posts, as on a normal blog. But some of the best content is in static pages or on subdomains, or in archived posts.
Creating a Static Front Page
So recently I created a static front page for the blog, to highlight some content that I think readers would enjoy. You can do that with WordPress now - see their explanation at Reading Options Subpanel.
This static page is the page that will display as the home page of the blog.
Here you can see a screen shot of the page I created:
Most of the boxes highlight static content. I don’t plan on updating them too often. But they will lead the reader into sections of the blog that they would otherwise have a hard time finding.
The only box that will be updated automatically when I post to the blog is the top left one. This will show an excerpt of the latest post, as well as links to the previous 4 posts.
In my next post, I will tell you how I got this box to update automatically.
Details on Getting the Static Page to Work
Ok, so here are the details on getting this to work. The WordPress instructions don’t really go into all this, but I knew of it from previous work with templates.
- Under Options - Reading, you will need to select “Front page displays: a static page”.
Then, enter the name of your static front page - they suggest “Myhome”, so that’s what I used. The name doesn’t really matter since it won’t be seen on your blog. (Except that it will show up in the title of the page - but I use the SEO Title Tag plugin, so I can adjust the title tag using the plugin.)
Also, enter the name of a page where your regular posts will be displayed (this will look just like your former front page). I used “Posts”.
This part is explained pretty well at wordpress.org. It is the next steps that they don’t really mention.
- Create a template for “myhome”.
I named this “myhome.php”. Create this by copying one of your other templates, such as index.php or single.php, and stripping out everything but the header, footer, and sidebar. (Often, the sidebar is included in the footer template.)
You will then replace the stuff between the header and footer with whatever you want to appear on your static page. I will tell you more about things you can put here in the next post.
Note: Very important - you must add this code to the beginning of the template:
<?php
/*
Template Name: Myhome
*/
?>This is what allows WordPress to recognize this file as a template file.
The Template Name should correspond to what you named this file - I called my file “myhome.php” so the Template Name is “Myhome”.
So when you’re done, the contents of “myhome.php” should look something like this:
<?php
/*
Template Name: Myhome
*/
?><?php get_header(); ?>
<div style=”margin:20px;”>
<!– Your code for your static page goes here –>
</div>
<?php get_footer(); ?>
- Create the “Posts” page.
You will now create a blank page with the title “Posts” (or whatever you chose in step 1 for your posts page).
This is all you need to do. Now the page www.mydomain.com/posts/ will look exactly like your previous home page used to look.
Of course, you will link to this page from your static home page - however you want to do that.
- Create the “Myhome” page.
You will create another blank page with the title “Myhome” (or whatever title you chose in step 1 for your front page). The trick here is that you must choose the “Myhome” template that you created in step 2, as the Page Template. See screen shot below.
- Side note: You don’t have to do step 2 of creating a special template for your static home page if you don’t want to have a lot of special php code on the page. You can just put your content in the body of the “Myhome” page and use the normal template. I did it this way because I want to have a lot of special HTML and php which works better in a template file.
And that’s it! You should now have a static home page. Of course, there is more work to be done, since you must create some content for this static page.
I created several boxes highlighting various parts of my site.
In my next post, I will tell you how I created the box in the top left, which will be automatically updated with my latest posts.
If you try this, let me know (or if you already have this in place). I’m sure other readers would like to see more examples of a static home page also.
- Pat Doyle
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Hi Pat,
I did this for my “Guitars on TV” video blog that I’m leaving fairly static right now. I put a big Google Adsense video unit just below the top banner and a Dagon Sitemap below the video unit. It doesn’t get a lot of traffic because I don’t promote it much but it will usually get about a $1 a day.
Frank, that sounds pretty good for a blog that doesn’t need a lot of work.
Hi Pat, I just revamped my blog with a static page using the Static Blogging course. I really wish I had known about it sooner because it walks you through the whole process of starting fresh and took me a little over a day to set up, and most of that time was uploading plugins because my internet connection is unreliable.
Christine and Stacie, the developers of the course have a support forum and are right on top of any questions, I have been really impressed with the whole thing.
You can see my new blog with a static page at http://www.queenofkaos.com/home
(to compare, my old blog is still up at
http://www.queenofkaos.com/at-home-blog )
There is no comparison!
I still have to add a lot of the features that really make it great like rotating ads and videos, which I had no clue about before.
I am looking forward to your coming info on formatting the static page with html and was very interested in reading how to do the template, that is new to me and could be very useful.
Jan, thanks for your comment. Your new blog looks great!
Great post, Pat!
I found it very interesting as I’ve never seen an explanation on how to create a static homepage before.
Looking forward to the next one!
Thanks, Conrad!
Hi Pat,
Thanks for this GREAT post.
I have always wondered how people do this, though I have noticed static pages with RSS most of the times.
Will try this and let you have the result.
BTW, I came to your blog through Terry Dean’s recommendation. I will definitely stay here for long
Someone with suitable credentials could really make a nice research study out of a phenomenon I’ve observed a lot in blogging lately.
I have a good friend who writes in one of my niches and we chat behind the scenes often. Sometimes I’ll post something and then go visit his blog and “bang”, he’s posted something along the exact same lines. I even once had thoughts he was somehow “leeching” off me for his ideas, but then I discovered I was frequently posting things very similar to his posts too … no possibility of anything like copying or spying … it’s as if some keystrokes came by and roosted in my drafts file without any actual Internet connection.
Yesterday I was trying to get myself in the mood for actually committing some goals/plans for 2008 onto (electronic) paper … and a top priority is to upgrade several low-performing blogs to show the hidden static content and make the front pages look more like an info-style website.
I knew about the WordPress features you’re highlight here but had failed several times to get a blog set up to my satisfaction using them … after reading your instructions I now see what my problem was .. thanks.
So now the question springs to my active but illogical mind … why did I decide to start just them getting back to solving my problem … or were you reading my unwritten to-do list through some magic medium?
All I can figure is that there is a secret channel hidden in the RSS protocol that certainly is amazing.
Thanks for a most useful and _timely_ series … it couldn’t have come at abetter time.
Hi Adebola, I’m glad you found my blog - welcome!
Dave, that’s funny! I have noticed this too - sometimes I get an idea for a post and post it, and then I see something on the same subject that someone else just posted. It’s like the ideas are just out floating in the air or something.
Anyway, glad you both liked the post.
Thanks for a great read. I have just moved my blog to Wordpress and this has proved really useful. I have ended up doing something slightly different but this set me down the right track.
Marc, that’s great! Glad I could help.
[...] my last post, I described how I created a static home page for my dog [...]
That’s interesting. I always wondered how people do that. I like the layout of your dog site by the way.
Thanks, Aaron!
Ah ha, I wondered how you actually did that. I’m starting some niche sites at the moment and want to make the front page static - great (and well detailed) tip Pat - thanks.
When i create the page and link it to the page template as mentioned here, then the sidebar is different then the index.php sidebar?
How i use identical the same sidebar? This is not discussed here.
using wordpress 2.3.2 and fauna theme
To bring in the sidebar, you usually need to have this:
<?php get_sidebar(); ?>
This is just generally what you do. I am not familiar with the fauna theme. Look in the index.php to see how the sidebar is brought in, and do the same thing for your page template.