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How to Add Posts to Your Static Homepage in WordPress

Filed Under: Blogging 125 Comments

WordPressYou may have noticed that my blog’s homepage now has static content along with my recent posts.

I’m in the process of launching a book on niche websites (thanks to all my email subscriber’s feedback), so I’m making room for promotion and will be doing some experimentation very soon.

Plus, I want my homepage to have more of an intro with a personal touch.

Adding posts to your static homepage is pretty straightforward for most themes, but if you use the Thesis Theme, the steps are a bit different.

So I’ll begin by showing you how to do this with most themes and follow up with Thesis instructions.

Instructions (For Most Themes)

1. Create a new static Page in WordPress.  Title it whatever you’d like and add your content. This is going to be the content for your homepage. Save the page.

2. Create a new Post. Title it whatever you’d like (i.e. Blog), but leave the content area blank.  Save the page.

3. Go to Settings >> Reading in your WordPress admin panel.   Choose the static page you just created for your Front Page, and the Post page for your Posts Page.

WordPress Reading Settings

Select Save Changes and that should be it!

For Thesis Users

The instructions are very similar for the Thesis theme, but require some modification.

1.  Create your static page as instructed above and add your content.

2.  Add the following code to your custom_functions.php Thesis file..

function static_front_posts(){
if (is_front_page()) {
?>
<div id="my-static-front-posts">
<?php
$custom_loop = new WP_Query('showposts=10&orderby=date');
if ( $custom_loop->have_posts() ) :
while ( $custom_loop->have_posts() ) : $custom_loop->the_post();
echo '<div class="post type-post hentry post_box top">';
echo '<div class="headline_area"><h2 class="entry-title"><a href="' . get_permalink() . '">' . get_the_title() . '</a></h2>';
echo '<p class="headline_meta"><abbr title="" class="published">' . get_the_date() . '</abbr></p></div>';
echo '<div class="format_text entry-content"><p>' . get_the_excerpt() . '</p></div>';
echo '<a href="' . get_permalink() . '">' . '<span class="more-button">Read More</span></a>';
echo '</div>';
endwhile;
wp_reset_query();
endif;
?></div><?php
 }
 }
add_action('thesis_hook_after_content','static_front_posts');

If you want to adjust the number of posts that show up, change the 10 in the following line to whatever number you’d like…

$custom_loop = new WP_Query('showposts=10&orderby=date');

Email subscribers:
If you cannot view the code, click here to read this post on my blog.

NOTE:  Even though some sources say to create a blank Posts page as mentioned in the first set of instructions, I did not have to do this for Thesis. I only had to create a static page and add the code to my custom_functions file.

This is what my Reading Settings looks like…

WordPress Reading Settings

Other Solutions?

Of course there are many more ways to customize your homepage with static and dynamic content, so if you have some solutions, tips or tricks up your sleeve, please share!

Comments

  1. Dharam Nair says

    June 14, 2016 at 10:28 pm

    Hi , Lisa I am trying to set my header but gone so far still it doesn’t comek Only my LOGO IS APPERAING

    Reply
  2. Peter Bate says

    August 9, 2014 at 6:50 am

    I could hug you Lisa,I have just had a blog built for me and every post I put on the blog page never showed up and I’m wracking my brains wondering why,and I’ve just found you blog today and this post above I read gave me the answer.Many Thanks

    PeterB

    Reply
  3. Bangkok sightseeing says

    October 24, 2013 at 3:44 am

    Hey I know this is ooff topic but I waas wondering if yoou knew of any widgets Icould add to my blog that
    automatically tweet myy newest twittyer updates.

    I’ve been looking for a plug-in like this for quite some time and
    was hoping maybe you would have some experience with something like this.
    Please let me know if you run into anything. I truly enjoy reading
    your blog and I look forward to your new updates.

    Reply
    • Lisa Irby says

      October 24, 2013 at 11:13 am

      TwitterFeed can do this for you and so can other tools like Hootsuite.

      Reply
  4. April says

    April 3, 2013 at 8:08 pm

    Of course this didn’t work for me BUT I figured out a way to make it happen for me. And I really feel this is epic from someone who spends half a day trying to learn to do things since I’m a NEWBIE! LOL. Here’s the post where I break it down: http://iblogoutloud.com/2013/04/03/adding-posts-to-your-static-home-page/
    Hope it helps someone!!

    Reply
    • lisa says

      April 3, 2013 at 8:24 pm

      Awesome, April! Thanks so much for sharing this because I do believe my tip is theme specific so it’s good that you found a better workaround. I’m sure this will help others.

      Reply
      • April says

        April 3, 2013 at 8:26 pm

        I hope so. If people didn’t post their findings on some of this stuff I would be forever lost! LOL. So I try to do the same.

        Reply
  5. Ashley says

    February 8, 2013 at 1:17 am

    I have been combing the interweb but I cannot find a solution for this issue. My front page has no sidebars but I want the section with the post I bring over to have the sidebar. I can’t for my life figure out what to add to this function to make it work. Site is http://ashleywelton.com

    Anybody have any suggestions???

    Reply
    • lisa says

      February 8, 2013 at 4:56 pm

      Ashley, this is probably how your theme is coded. Check your individual theme settings to see if you can alter this. If you cannot, then it’s hard-coded into your theme meaning you’d need to understand the code to fix it. Not ideal, I know. It’s often hard to diagnose because every theme is different.

      Reply
      • Ashley says

        February 11, 2013 at 12:50 pm

        Hi Lisa,

        I’m using thesis. And after much finagling I’ve found a solution which requires lots of work in my functions.php file – not a super comfortable place for me, but I’m managing.

        HOWEVER – with your code, my sidebar is showing up below the blog content instead of beside it. Any ideas how to fix that? The page I’m testing is ashleywelton.com/test –
        I’m going to keep fooling with it, but I’m kind of stumped on a solution.

        thanks!!

        Reply
  6. catherine says

    February 1, 2013 at 11:25 pm

    I am so glad I found your site! As a newbie to WordPress your step by step instructions are always spot on. Thank you for making your resources available.

    Reply
  7. Kaitlin at SouthAmerica.travel says

    January 24, 2013 at 5:02 pm

    Hi,

    This solution worked well for my blog, http://news.SouthAmerica.travel. But I would like to increase the size of the “Read More” link at the bottom of each recent post. Do you know how to do that? I tried to edit the font-size in custom-functions.php, but it didn’t seem to work.

    Also, is there a way to make the thumbnails that appear next to the recent posts clickable?

    Thanks for your help!

    Reply
  8. jeff gedgaud says

    January 21, 2013 at 12:11 pm

    You dont really address what the post is about, you tell how to add a static page as your landing or home page, not how to add posts to a static page.

    Reply
  9. David says

    November 16, 2012 at 11:27 am

    Hey Lisa, I came across your blog a couple of weeks ago and found some really useful information, but not this particular post. I just typed in to Google “recent posts not showing on a sticky homepage in thesis”, I know, it is a long search term, but you came up No.1!! Thank you so much for the tips in this post, I already had a static homepage but couldn’t get the recent posts to show, but now I can, you’re an angel 🙂

    Reply
    • lisa says

      November 16, 2012 at 4:54 pm

      Awesome! Glad I could help and thanks for sharing this on Twitter as well. 🙂

      Reply
      • David says

        November 19, 2012 at 6:09 am

        You’re welcome Lisa 🙂

        Reply
  10. Bsienn says

    October 10, 2012 at 7:19 am

    Wrong: I dont think U did what the title says. “How to Add Posts to Your Static Homepage in WordPress”
    Step 1) That will not make your home static page populated with posts. It will make a new page named blog and put all post on it.

    Reply
  11. Brad says

    September 5, 2012 at 10:47 am

    Hey Lisa, I was searching for the Thesis php code to handle this on one of my authority sites, as I want sort of a hybrid home page, with static content and latest posts — you gave exactly what I needed… thank you, thank you!

    Reply
    • lisa says

      September 5, 2012 at 4:14 pm

      Awesome, Brad! Glad I could help. 🙂

      Reply
  12. Tariq says

    August 22, 2012 at 12:21 am

    hi Lisa !!!
    i have a problem, i searched a lot but i cant find the solution of my problem,
    i have a blogger blog and i want to change my homepage as i like, when my home page open i want that 2 posts per label should show on my page how i do that?
    remember that i have a lot of labels, here is my blog address bestrightway.com

    Reply
  13. Ankit says

    July 27, 2012 at 9:38 am

    Thanks you very very much.. I wasted 2 days to find the solution for this problem and could not solve it.. Today I Just added these Codes in custom_function.php and its working without any damn error..

    Once again Thanks Allot..
    1 problem , that read more button is very small.. how to style it, ? Just to make that read more button like a button..

    Reply
  14. url opener says

    April 24, 2012 at 2:20 am

    very interesting, but I feel that if we run blog then we should have a dynamic updated page so that each time visitors and crawlers get updated content on home page.

    Reply
  15. Mark @ How to Win the Lotto says

    April 20, 2012 at 2:41 pm

    By using a static front page have you seen any decline in Search Engine Rankings? I as this because I have seen a few blogs that experienced this when they changed over to a static front page.
    Personally I like the static home page as an introduction to a site. It helps you familiarize your self with the bog you are reading.

    Reply
    • lisa says

      April 20, 2012 at 4:39 pm

      My blog homepage has never gotten much traffic from the search engines — it’s always been traffic to internal pages for me so this was never much of an issue. If anything it’s better for SEO because I can now focus my content more instead of having a bunch of different posts that may or may not be related to the keywords I want to target.

      Reply
  16. Custom crating orlando says

    April 4, 2012 at 6:29 am

    Thank u so much….

    Reply
  17. health ecology says

    March 21, 2012 at 12:40 am

    Thanks a lot for these tips. It’s very helpful for me because i have many wordpress sites and i need to add pages in the site. very helpful.

    Reply
  18. Bill says

    March 19, 2012 at 7:23 pm

    Thank you Lisa. That was very helpful. Static pages are very important and we should all consider making use of them

    Reply
  19. SASdigital says

    March 12, 2012 at 5:57 am

    what is the diff b/w static or dynamic pages?
    In WP can not make the dynamic pages ? If yes then how to make that?

    Reply
  20. Al Qasr says

    March 8, 2012 at 6:45 am

    This article reduced my headache I was so much worried about static homepage in word press and I got there solution here!!

    thanks for sharing it 😉

    Reply
  21. masita says

    March 5, 2012 at 3:44 am

    I am new in wordpress. Can we set up RSS Feed on static homepace below or above the post?

    Reply
  22. sunny says

    February 18, 2012 at 3:23 am

    Its very helpful for me because i have many WordPress sites and i need to add pages in the site.very helpful.
    church in kent

    Reply
  23. friv says

    February 17, 2012 at 10:39 am

    Thanks a lot for these tips.I use wordpress and I want to make a static page with one of my post and I didn’t know how to do that.Now…I’m going to try your advice..hope to work!You saved my time!

    Reply
  24. Trinity says

    February 13, 2012 at 1:18 pm

    Lisa, I have been trying to figure a problem out for the longest while, how do I get the menu ‘Fashion’ to show pics just like it does on the front page. In fact I want it to display just like the front page does complete with readmore.

    Reply
  25. JOHN AIDEN says

    February 13, 2012 at 5:55 am

    Nicely explained , its really helpful to me.

    Reply
  26. Jasir Javaz says

    February 9, 2012 at 10:09 am

    is there any option to add diffrnt themes for diffrnt categories in same wordpress?

    Reply
  27. Steve Watson says

    February 7, 2012 at 7:23 am

    Hi Lisa. I have tried the first method on one of my other sites and it worked well. Thanks for the easy fix 😉

    Reply
  28. Jake Welford says

    February 6, 2012 at 2:40 am

    I love the way it allows developers and users to customize the look and feel and complete functionality. I love thesis. thank you for posting this article. It is very helpful

    Reply
  29. Michael Belk says

    February 1, 2012 at 10:34 pm

    This is a good idea Lisa. I like that you play around a little. I think you have to. I have changed my theme about so many times I lost count.

    Reply
  30. ma wedding photographers says

    February 1, 2012 at 6:07 pm

    I love Thesis, do you know of a way to alter the look of the top links?

    Reply
    • lisa says

      February 3, 2012 at 4:58 pm

      If you go to the admin panel under the “Thesis” section, select Design Options. It’s under the Navigation section.

      Reply
  31. Puneet Sahalot says

    January 29, 2012 at 5:41 am

    This is one reason why I have been using Thesis for building client sites and my own sites. I love the way it allows developers and users to customize the look and feel and complete functionality. 🙂

    Reply
  32. Prakash@techblowup says

    January 27, 2012 at 5:48 am

    To add a post in our static homepage is now looks very easy. Thanks for this article. Really nice post I have ever seen.

    Reply
  33. Jake says

    January 25, 2012 at 3:11 pm

    I tried many methods previously but they all had their faults. I like to have full control over what posts get posted and how long the excerpt should be. I finally settled on a plugin called list category posts. It gives me all the control I need. But good info here, especially for the Thesis users.

    Reply
  34. Salman @ Tech Blog says

    January 25, 2012 at 8:30 am

    Very well explained tute on adding posts to static homepage. A doubt arises to me:

    With ref to “Instructions (For most themes)” point #2 – We need to create a post and not a page, did I read it right ?

    Thanks

    Reply
  35. Nick Sotos says

    January 25, 2012 at 4:00 am

    What a great article Lisa on static content…..You clarified it all. Thanks you for sharing your insight and thanks everybody who comments. It was very informative reading this post and the discussion as well. It really answered many of my questions on this topic.

    Reply
  36. New says

    January 24, 2012 at 2:19 pm

    Please tell me how to do it on blogspot?????

    Reply
  37. Shrinivas says

    January 23, 2012 at 9:23 pm

    Nice article to add static post to wp homepage. Thanks for sharing with all.

    Reply
  38. Repa says

    January 22, 2012 at 11:44 am

    Perfectly explained. Thanks !!!

    Reply
  39. Internetarbete says

    January 21, 2012 at 9:59 am

    This post helped me out alot. I use Thesis on a few of my websites and I really have tried to find a sollution like the one you presented in this post.

    I wish you best of luck with your web campaigns, by the looks of it, you doing great!

    Reply
  40. Steve says

    January 20, 2012 at 10:01 pm

    Hi Lisa,
    Another good article and fine advise. I do believe that in WordPress, pages have a longer ranking life as compared to post. Post might rank faster, but pages offer longer staying power.

    A process I have used on some sites that I think compares to your ideas on static pages is similar. I build a Page like ‘Product Reviews’. I insert a short description of the ‘Product article’ with a hyper link to the articles/ post, and in my mind, I think this is a kind of ‘Static Page’.

    What do you think? I know it’s not exactly the same, but similar. Once it is found by the search engines, it does rank well.

    Just my ideas, thanks again for the informative article. Every option I can find is a GOOD one.
    Steve

    Reply
  41. Sustines Laplana says

    January 20, 2012 at 6:33 pm

    I am a wordpress user since 2005. Although I already had learned creating a stating page for the homepage but I am still confused what to do make a homepage like yours. In my blog, what I did was to use the sticky feature. I actually forgot that it can be done by using the static page too….

    Well, thanks for the reminder…

    Reply
  42. Kevin Struz says

    January 17, 2012 at 3:57 pm

    Hello Lisa
    Thanks 4 the great instructions very easy 2 understand.
    This will help me 2 continue 2 grow in the NetWorking industry.
    Thanks Again.

    Reply
  43. Dr. Arpan Kar says

    January 17, 2012 at 8:52 am

    This is indeed a nice post. As one moves from blogging to using the blog for professional utility, having a home page with details of offerings and yet having fresh content also, is absolutely necessary. Great article..

    Reply
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