How to Make a Page Homepage in WordPress

Making a captivating page your homepage in WordPress is pivotal—both several studies and logic support that. Without giving visitors a reason to stay, they’ll click off and likely actively avoid coming to your website again. Moreover, a great homepage plays a crucial role in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) because it contains necessary URLs to various sections of your website, thus helping bots index your website thoroughly. Additionally, it includes external links such as social media accounts and secondary websites, helping visitors and search engines alike. Now that you realize its importance, let’s dive into how to make a page homepage in WordPress.

1. Make a page homepage using Homepage Settings

We’re starting with the default method of configuring which page shows up as the homepage. This method utilizes Live Customizer, a WordPress feature that lets you see changes in real-time on the right-hand side. Don’t be confused by the mention of “static”—it only means the homepage itself won’t get switched with another in set periods. That doesn’t mean the elements on it must remain static, i.e., that you can’t use JavaScript. With that acknowledged, here’s how to set up a page on a WordPress website as a homepage:

1. Access your WordPress Admin dashboard.
2. Go to Pages → All Pages in the left sidebar of WordPress Admin.
3. Memorize the name of the intended page and make necessary changes.
   Tip. Are you hosting your website via WordPress.com? If so, you can click on a three-dot menu next to the page name. Then, choose Set as Homepage.
4. Expand the left sidebar and now go to Appearance → Customize.
5. On the list of options on the left-hand side, select Homepage Settings.
6. Once it opens, set A static page under “Your homepage displays”.
7. Now, from the drop-down list under “Homepage”, select the page with the name you memorized in step 3.
8. If you have a separate page for blogs, pick it under “Posts page”.
9. Click the Save Changes button in the upper right corner of the Live Customizer secton.
10. With your page configured as a homepage, add a menu in the header and/or footer, configure widgets and a sidebar, and make any other alterations.

Note. If you don’t see Homepage Settings or can’t select a page, make sure your page is Published (Not a “Draft” or “Pending”). Also, ensure it’s set to Public under “Status & Visibility” (editing via Block Editor) or “Publish → Visibility” (editing using Classic Editor).

Add the page to the header or footer menu (Optional)

Now that you have a homepage, it’s a superb idea to link to it, preferably in the top menu, so your visitors can find it from all pages on your website. This is unnecessary if you have other elements linking to it, such as your website logo. If you don’t, go to Appearance → Menus. Put a checkmark in front of the page name under “Pages → View All”. Click on Add to Menu, then select Header Menu before clicking Save Menu.

2. Making any page a homepage through the Reading section

If the method above fails for whatever reason, don’t fret. Your theme might have prevented you from doing that by, for instance, making your newest posts appear as homepage. To solve that, you can follow these instructions to make a page homepage via the Reading menu in WordPress:

1. Expand the sidebar on the left-hand side of your WordPress Admin section.
2. Click on Settings, then Reading.
3. On the “Reading Settings” page, find a section titled Enable a static front page.
4. Put a checkmark in front of Show a page instead of your latest posts.
5. Pick the page from the drop-down list underneath. For example, “Home”.
6. To make sure your posts still appear somewhere, tick the box in front of Show latest posts on a separate page and enter the name of that page, say, “Blog”.
7. Click the Save Changes or Update buttons in the bottom left corner. Check the result on the front end and, optionally, link to it as we explained above.

3. Configure a page created via WordPress page builder plugin as homepage

Are you using any of the page builder plugins for WordPress? If so, you’ll find it hard to edit pages through Classic or Gutenberg Editor. In rare cases, a page created that way may not appear when you use methods 1 and 2. Since we can’t demonstrate every plugin, we’ll use the most popular on the WordPress repository. Here are 3 quick solutions for setting a page as a homepage that work with Elementor:

1. Use our guide on duplicating a post or page. Utilize the duplicated page with method 1 or 2.
2. Find your page under Pages → All Pages. Now:
   1. Click on Edit with Elementor.
   2. In the bottom left corner, next to “Publish” click the up arrow and select Save as Template. Give it a name.
   3. Start a new page. Now click the folder icon next to “Drag widget here”.
   4. Click the magnifying glass icon, select your template, and click on Insert.
      Click on Update.
   5. Use methods 1 or 2 to select a newly created page as a homepage.
3. If Homepage Settings/Reading still doesn’t recognize an Elementor page, you can do this:
   1. Go to Templates → Saved Templates.
   2. Copy the shortcode for your home page template. It will look similar to this: [elementor-template id=”1528″]
   3. Create a new page with Block Editor or Classic Editor, not Elementor.
   4. Give it a name such as “Home Page”, paste the shortcode into the text box, and click on Preview Changes.
   5. If everything looks right, click on Update.
   6. Select the newly created page via methods 1 and 2 above.

4. Set a landing page as your homepage (Alternative)

Let us ask you this. Are you dead set on having a full-fledged homepage, packed with content and containing a header, footer, sidebar, and other elements? If not, you can make a landing page for WordPress. Not only will it be alluring for visitors and likely lead to a high conversion rate, but also serve as a temporary or permanent solution to problems with the 3 methods above. To clarify, you can leave a link to the page you planned to make a homepage, such as Continue to website. Win-win, right?