Create a custom homepage

When you activate a theme, your site will use that theme’s default homepage, which you can edit how you wish. However, you may prefer to build a new homepage from scratch. This guide will show you how.

To set one of your published pages as the homepage, take the steps below.

1. Visit your site’s dashboard.
2. Navigate to Settings → Reading.
3. Next to “Your homepage displays“, select the “A static page” option.
4. In the drop-down, choose the page you want to use as your homepage. Only published pages (not drafts) will show in these drop-down lists.
5. Click the “Save Changes” button to save your selected homepage.

If your homepage content is currently built into a template (like the Front Page template), you can copy that content to your new static page before setting it as your homepage.

A template sets the structure of your page, including the header, footer, and how the page content is presented. Use Templates to control this structure, and use Pages to edit the main body content.

To create a new homepage template:

1. Go to Appearance → Editor in your site’s dashboard.

2. Click Templates in the Design menu on the left.
3. Click the the “Add Template” button at the top right to create a new template.
4. Click the “Custom template” option at the bottom of the Add template screen.

5. Give your custom template a memorable name, like my custom home page, and click the Create button.
6. If asked to choose a pattern, click the Skip link at the bottom right of the screen to be taken to the editor.
7. Add content to your new home page. We recommend adding the following elements:
   • Header: You can select an existing header template part or put together a new one from scratch containing common elements like a site logo, site tagline, and a site menu.
   • Content: Your page will provide the main content in the template, so for now, add the Content block to display your page’s content in the template.
   • Footer: You can select an existing footer template part or put together a new one from scratch containing common elements like copyright text, your Site Title, and Contact Info.
8. Click the Save button and visit the next section to learn how to apply your new template to your homepage.

Take a look at our dedicated template guides for more detailed steps on working with templates.

In the previous section, you created a custom homepage template. To apply this template to your page:

1. Visit your site’s dashboard.
2. Click on Pages.
3. Click on your homepage to edit it.
4. Open the page settings sidebar on the right.

5. Next to Template, click the template name, then select the “Change template” option.

6. Click on the template you created, then click Save or Publish to save your changes.

You can also preview how your content appears in the template before committing your changes.

Classic themes rely on the pre-built design of the theme to determine color schemes, layouts, and more. If your site uses a classic theme, you will not have the Appearance → Editor option in your site’s dashboard. The classic theme controls the page template and can’t be directly edited.

We recommend switching to a site editor theme for full control over your site. On a classic theme, you edit the page content by following these steps:

1. Go to Pages in your site’s dashboard.
2. Click the title of the page you’ve assigned as your homepage.
3. Edit, add, or remove blocks as desired (learn how to use the WordPress Editor here.)
4. Click the Save button in the top-right corner to save your changes.

Some classic themes may offer optional “Front” or “Home” templates. These special templates will have a unique design specific to the site’s homepage and only apply to this specific theme. Refer to your theme’s guide to learn how to configure this template.

To access the theme’s documentation:

1. Navigate to Appearance → Themes in your site’s dashboard.
2. Click on the thumbnail of a theme (your active theme will be first in the list.)

For example, the classic theme named Dara has specific instructions for setting up your homepage and other custom features of the theme.

Watch our recorded webinar that will guide you through every step of the process of setting up a compelling homepage: