How To Make a Static Front Page for your WordPress Blog
WordPress may be the most popular blogging software in the internet marketing world today. But if you think that WP is just for blogging, think again. The flexibilty of WordPress means it is an appropriate platform for just about any marketing idea you have in mind.
One thing that can set your WordPress site apart from the others is to set up a static home page, welcome page or other non-post pages to promote your favorite affiliate programs. This article will show you how to create a static home page and posts page.
Once you are logged into your Admin Dashboard page, follow the four simple steps outlined below.
1. Click Page and then click Add New. Use the Title field to name the page depending what you will use it for. Walla! You just created your first static WordPress page. An important tip: if you will be using this as your Home Page, give it a “page order” of zero. This option is under Attributes on the right side of the screen. You can also arrange your pages in hierarchies, nesting them as deeply as you like. That means there are no limits on the pages and topics you can create.
2. Create another empty page using the above process. Name this page “Posts” and give it the Order number of 99.
3. To finalize the creation of your WordPress static page, return to the Dashboard and click on “Settings,” then click “Reading.” At the top you will see two radio buttons. Select the one that says “Static Page.” Then select the page you named “Home” from the drop down list. Other settings stay the same.
4. Next go to the radio button that says Posts page, and select the page you created and named “Posts” from the dropdown list. You can leave the other settings on this page as they are. Click Save Changes, and then visit your website. You will land on your new Home page, and you will see a link named Posts that when clicked, brings your visitors to a list of your latest posts.
Using a static front page for your WordPress blog allows you to update it regularly, which gives you an edge with the search engines. And being higher on search engine results pages means more free traffic to your blog, which is always a good thing.
