Edit the default homepage

The default homepage is the homepage design that comes with your site’s theme. This guide will show you how to find and edit the content and design of the home page.

First, make sure your site is using the theme’s default homepage instead of a custom homepage with the instructions below.

1. Visit your site’s dashboard.
2. Navigate to Pages and make sure your site has at least one published page.
3. Navigate to Settings → Reading.
4. Next to “Your homepage displays“, select the “Your latest posts” option (this is the default homepage, not necessarily a feed of the latest blog posts).
   • If you select a “static page” instead of “Your latest posts“, then your site is using a custom homepage.
5. Click the “Save Changes” button at the bottom of the screen.

If your site uses a theme that supports the Site Editor, you can access and edit the default homepage through the Site Editor. A quick way to determine if your site uses the site editor is to check for Appearance → Editor in your site’s dashboard.

To find and edit the default homepage:

1. Visit your site’s dashboard.
2. Click on Appearance → Editor.
3. Click anywhere on your site on the right side to open the editor and close the left sidebar:

You are now viewing the homepage template, which may be labeled as Home, Index, Blog Home or Front Page at the top of the screen:

Before you start adding your content, it’s a good idea to become familiar with the homepage’s layout. You most likely selected the theme you activated because of how the home page looks. Understanding how it’s designed will help you replace the default content with your own, as well as add or remove content from your home page.

Open the List View to explore the homepage’s layout. Click the List View icon (three stacked horizontal lines) in the top toolbar of the Site Editor:

In the List View, you’ll find all the elements (known in the WordPress editor as blocks) of your homepage. A typical default homepage template will contain the following elements:

• Header: The header contains elements like a site title, logo, and menu. The header is a template part that appears across the entire site. Therefore, any edits to this header will apply to all pages on your site where the header template part is inserted.
• Content: Everything between the header and the footer is the main content of your homepage. You will likely see text and images, organized into Groups, Columns, and more. If your theme displays blog posts on the homepage, you will likely find a Query Loop block here too.
• Footer: The footer contains elements like a site title, contact information, and a WordPress footer credit. The footer is a template part that appears on every page. Therefore, any edits you make to this footer will apply everywhere on your site where the footer template part is inserted.

While every WordPress theme is different, this is the standard structure of a default homepage template that you can expect to see on most themes. In addition, you may see other elements in this template, which you can edit as you wish.

You can also add your own blocks and block patterns to the home page.

The default homepage gives you a professional, well-designed layout to start from. To personalize the default design, you can replace the text and images for your own content and add or remove any elements on the page.

To replace the homepage’s default content with your own, follow these steps:

1. Visit your site’s dashboard.
2. Click on Appearance → Editor.
3. Click the preview of your home page on the right to open the editor.
4. Click on the content you want to replace.
   • For example, if you want to change text, click the text you want to change and enter your new text.
   • Or, if you want to change an image, click the image and choose the Replace option from the toolbar that appears.

There are some elements that will bring in content from other parts of your website (like blog posts or products.) Use the List View icon to identify the type of block the content uses and search our list of blocks to learn more about how it works. You can also click on a block, view the block’s settings on the right, and click the block guide link to learn more.

• To change the fonts and color palette, use the Styles options.
• To delete any content, see Remove a Block.
• To add any content, see Add Content Using Blocks.
• To move any content, see Select and Move Blocks.
• To modify the navigation menu, see Menus.

As you modify your homepage, you can click the Save button in the top-right corner to save your changes: