Do you want to know how to edit a homepage in WordPress?
If you’ve just started your WordPress website, you might be wondering why your homepage looks like a blog filled with your latest posts. Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Many beginners find it tricky to figure out how to customize their homepage to show something different.
The good news is that WordPress makes it easy to edit your homepage and create a unique first impression for your visitors. Whether you want to showcase your products, services, customer reviews, or create a stunning portfolio, we’ll guide you through the process step-by-step.
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Why Edit Your WordPress Homepage?
Your WordPress homepage is the first thing visitors see, and you should optimize it to enhance user engagement and create a great first impression.
For WordPress blogs, featuring recent posts is common. But, if you have an eCommerce site, you’ll benefit from highlighting new products, trends, and promotions to boost sales. Similarly, small businesses should display services, team information, and testimonials to attract clients.
However, the problem many of our readers face is this: editing a WordPress homepage to look professional and drive conversions is difficult without design or coding skills.
Luckily, you’re in the right place. We’ll walk you through the process of how to edit your homepage in WordPress and customize it without hiring a developer. The steps are easy to follow, even for complete beginners.
1. Setting a Separate Home & Blog Page
WordPress usually shows your latest blog posts on your homepage. That said, many businesses and blogs create a custom homepage with a separate blog page showing their blog posts.
So, how about we look at setting up a separate homepage and blog page in WordPress?
The first step is to set up a new homepage by navigating to Pages » Add New from your WordPress dashboard. Give the page a title like Home or Homepage, then click Publish to publish the page.
Next, repeat the process to create a new page to show your blog posts. Head to Pages » Add New and name the new page Blog. Then, you can publish the new blank page.
Once your pages are ready, it’s time to tell WordPress to start using them.
To do that, navigate to Settings » Reading from your WordPress admin area. Then, under the “Your homepage displays” heading, choose the static page option. This will let you select a specific page for your homepage and blog from the dropdown menus provided.
For the Homepage option, choose the page you just created. Then, for the Posts page option, select the page you created for your blog posts.
After setting up your pages, click the Save Changes button to preserve your settings.
2. How to Edit Homepage in WordPress Using a Theme Builder
SeedProd is one of the best website builders for WordPress. With its drag-and-drop editor, you can build and customize any type of website layout in real time without coding, including your WordPress homepage.
You can use SeedProd’s page builder plugin to create a WordPress theme with a custom WordPress homepage template and any other type of WordPress page.
First, you’ll need to download the SeedProd plugin and install it on your WordPress website to get started. You can learn how to install a WordPress plugin in this step-by-step guide.
Choose a Website Kitt
After installing and activating the plugin, navigate to SeedProd » Theme builder and click the ‘Themes Template Kits’ button.
This opens a window where you can see several professionally designed themes. Each theme caters to different types of websites, such as weddings, portfolios, agencies, and more. They come with custom headers, footers, sidebars, and homepage settings.
Hover your mouse over the template you like and click the checkmark icon. For this guide, we’ll choose the ‘Photography Website’ theme.
Doing this will create all the templates that make up your WordPress theme. This includes a static homepage template.
Edit the Homepage Template
SeedProd makes editing your theme templates easy with its drag-and-drop landing page builder.
All you need to do is hover your mouse over the “Homepage” template and click the Edit Design link.
Clicking that link will open your homepage in SeedProd’s page builder.
After opening the homepage template, you’ll see the visual editor, which has WordPress blocks, sections, and settings on the left-hand side. On the right is a preview of your page that you can edit in real time.
Clicking any element on the page opens a panel on the left-hand side. Here, you can customize its content, styling, and display options by pointing and clicking with your mouse.
For example, when you click a headline or text element, you can edit the demo content and replace it with information about your business.
Next, we’ll add a gallery to the homepage to display our portfolio on the homepage.
Click the Gallery block element in the template until you see an orange outline, then click it. On the left, you’ll see a panel where you can upload images from your computer or WordPress media library.
You can then click the advanced tab and change the number of columns, spacing, link source, image size, and more.
Next, we’ll scroll down the homepage and remove the ‘About Me’ section. We want to create a more engaging section with a call to action to learn more.
To remove the section, however over and click the trashcan icon.
Now, we’ll head to the Sections tab and choose a premade call to action section.
After choosing a section, SeedProd will automatically add it to the bottom of your homepage. From there, you can edit its content.
As you can see below, we’ve added a different photo, edited the description, and customized the call to action button.
Once you’ve finished customizing your homepage, click the ‘Save’ button at the top of the screen. Then, return to the list of templates by clicking the ‘X’ icon.
Enable Your Custom WordPress Homepage
When you’re ready to make your new theme and homepage live, toggle the ‘Enable SeedProd Theme’ setting to the ‘YES’ position.
Now, when you visit your website’s homepage and every other page on your site, you’ll see a fully custom design.
Compelling Hompages Edited with SeedProd
You don’t need to take our word for it. Many brands have successfully used SeedProd to completely Edit their homepages with excellent results.
Here’s how Duplicator transformed its WordPress homepage:
3. Editing WordPress Homepage Using Theme Customizer
The great thing about WordPress is it comes with tons of customizable WordPress themes you can use to create a great-looking website. Even better, the best WordPress themes often come with a homepage design you can easily customize.
Open the Theme Customizer
You can find your themes’ options by navigating to Appearance » Customize from your WordPress dashboard. This launches the WordPress theme customizer and shows a live preview of your theme.
The WordPress theme customizer will show different options for different WordPress themes. The preview you see, and the available options will look different from our example, depending on which theme you’re using. You can also edit your menus, widget areas, and other page settings with the customizer.
Edit Homepage Sections
To edit any area of your homepage, click the blue pencil icon next to each element. In this example, we’re editing the image, text, and button at the top of the homepage.
You can also remove sections of your homepage by clicking the blue eye icon. It’s also possible to add sections back to your page by clicking the Frontpage Sections tab in the customizer and clicking the eye icon.
When you’re happy with how your homepage looks, click the Publish button to make the page live for your audience.
Here’s how our homepage looks now that we’ve finished editing it.
Using your theme’s built-in customization settings to edit your WordPress home page is an excellent option if you need to make simple changes. Yet, it may not have all the options you need.
We’ll look at some more customization options next.
4. Editing WordPress Homepage Using Block Editor
If you prefer to create and edit your homepage from scratch and use your own layout, you can easily do this with the WordPress block editor (Gutenberg).
To do this, navigate to the new “home” page you created earlier and click Edit. Then, you can start creating content for the page.
Add WordPress Blocks
We’ll use a few simple WordPress blocks to create a basic homepage layout.
First, let’s add a welcome message to the page to improve the user experience. To do this, click on the page and start typing your message. WordPress will create a paragraph block for you automatically.
To make your message larger, navigate to the block settings on the right-hand side. Then under the Preset Size heading, you can select a text size from the dropdown menu.
If you like, you can change the color of your text in the Color Settings section.
Next, let’s add an image to the page.
To do that, click the Plus (+) icon in your editor toolbar and select the Image block. You can find the image block under the Media heading, or you can search for it in the search box.
You can select an image from your media library or upload one from your computer.
Next, add another paragraph block asking visitors to check out our latest blog posts.
After that, you can add a Latest Posts block to show your recent posts. You can edit the block settings on the right-hand side of the screen. We’ve set our block to show the featured image, post excerpt, and title.
You can choose as many blocks as you like for your homepage. Changing the page template to use no sidebars or make it full-width is also possible. However, this depends on the WordPress theme you use.
In our example, we’re using the Hestia WordPress theme.
When you’re happy with your changes, click the Publish button at the top-right of your screen.
Then you can preview your finished homepage:
Homepage Design Best Practices
You’ve learned the technical side of editing your WordPress homepage. Now, let’s make it shine. A well-designed homepage draws visitors in and guides them towards action.
Here’s how to make yours a winner:
First Impressions Count
- What’s Your Story? The top of your page should instantly tell visitors who you are and why they should care.
- Headline That Hooks: Use a clear, compelling headline that speaks directly to your audience’s needs or wants.
- Visuals That Pop: High-quality images or videos can make your message come alive and resonate with visitors.
- Show Them the Way: A clear and enticing call-to-action above the fold guides users towards the next step.
Leadfocus, a B2B marketing service, ditches industry seriousness for a refreshingly approachable homepage. It achieves this with a playful blend of 3D emojis and animations and expertly crafted copywriting that’s both casual and polished. This distinctive tone, reinforced by vibrant visuals and transparent pricing, clearly communicates the company’s mission: to make B2B marketing simpler and more enjoyable for its clients.
Keep it Simple, Keep it Smooth
- Flow Like Water: Organize your content logically, guiding the eye naturally down the page. Use headings, subheadings, bullet points, and white space to make everything easy to read.
- Effortless Navigation: Your menu should be super simple and easy to use. Include only essential pages and consider a sticky header so it’s always visible.
EightyOne’s agency website immediately captivates with a hero image that integrates video and scroll-triggered interactions. A partially obscured video, playing within the “O” of the agency’s logo, expands as users scroll, drawing them deeper into a showcase of EightyOne’s impressive portfolio of work with major brands and organizations.
Content is Still King
- Benefits Over Features: Don’t just tell people what you do, tell them how it makes their lives better!
- Build Trust: Testimonials, case studies, and social media embeds show potential customers that others love what you do.
- Show, Don’t Just Tell: Spice up your text with visuals, videos, or infographics to make your message more engaging and memorable.
Grammarly dedicates its homepage to promoting its new AI writing assistant. A compelling headline and subheadline duo instantly convey the core benefit: enhanced writing and reputation through responsible AI. The design, true to Grammarly’s focus, prioritizes text, strategically using visuals only for calls to action, a feature animation, and social proof logos.
Turn Visitors into Customers
- Clear Calls to Action: Use clear, concise language on your buttons, telling users exactly what to do next.
- Strategic Placement: Include CTAs throughout the page, ideally after you’ve highlighted something valuable.
- A/B Testing is Your Friend: Experiment with different layouts, headlines, and CTAs to see what works best for your audience.
Omsom’s homepage makes a delicious first impression. A hero image of a mouthwatering meal instantly whets the appetite, while the headline, “Real Asian Flavors in Minutes,” promises speed and convenience. As you scroll, Omsom details its product’s simplicity, addresses potential hesitations, and strategically incorporates calls to action for a seamless path to purchase.
Troubleshooting Common Homepage Issues
Even with the best guides, sometimes things don’t go quite as planned. If you’re having trouble with your homepage, don’t panic. Here are solutions to some common issues:
Homepage Not Updating.
This can be frustrating, but it usually has a simple fix. First, try clearing your browser’s cache and cookies.
If that doesn’t work, double-check that you’ve published your changes (look for the “Update” or “Publish” button in your WordPress editor).
Still no luck? Your website host might be caching your pages. Try purging their cache or temporarily disabling caching plugins.
404 Error on Homepage
A 404 error means your homepage can’t be found. This could be due to a permalink issue. Head to Settings » Permalinks in your WordPress dashboard and click “Save Changes” (even if you didn’t make any).
Another culprit could be a conflict with your theme or plugins. Try switching to a default theme temporarily to see if that resolves the issue.
Mobile Display Woes
If your homepage looks wonky on mobile devices, your theme might not be responsive. Responsive themes automatically adjust to fit different screen sizes.
Consider switching to a mobile-friendly theme or using a page builder with responsive features. If you’re already using a responsive theme, check for plugin conflicts or CSS issues that might be messing with the layout.
FAQs About Editing the WordPress Homepage
Next Steps
We hope this article helped you learn how to edit a homepage in WordPress.
Our top choice is to use SeedProd’s drag-and-drop theme builder. However, we recommend picking an option that best suits your website needs.
You might also find the following WordPress tutorials helpful in customizing your WordPress site:
- How to Create a Custom Page in WordPress
- How to Customize WordPress Menu Styles
- How to Create a Custom WordPress Author Page
- How to Customize WordPress Post Excerpts
Thanks for reading! We’d love to hear your thoughts, so please feel free to leave a comment with any questions and feedback.
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