11 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
11 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

Wordpress and Home Page - Please Help!

by JustaWizard
9 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
    • |
What IS the deal with Wordpress and the home page, anyway??

This has been vexing me for some time and I usually use plugins to solve it, but I really want to know what IS the root cause of the problem and best-practice solution(s) - to be clear:

You install Wordpress and you get a home page. That home page does NOT appear under "pages".

You go into READING > SETTINGS and choose "front page shows a static page" - no home page to choose to show as front page.

So, I create a new page and call it "blog" and go into SETTINGS > READING and set the posts page to the "blog" page just created, but STILL CANNOT choose "HOME" as the front page, not available as a choice, and still does not appear in the PAGES listing.

Which begs the question, where the heck IS that page if I wanted to get to it and add text? AND, set it as the front page?

Geez, this is so frustrating, I don't get why this has to be freaking rocket science... you'd think Wordpress developers would make this straight-forward for people who want to create a website using WP.

BTW, note that I've also tested other themes to see if that's the issue, it's not.

Can someone offer the final fix at the root of this problem?

Thanks!
David
PS: up till now I've used SEO Automatic's "core tweaks" plugin to solve this problem but I'd really like to be able to fix this darn thing myself. I have a little bit of PHP knowledge so if it's a code tweak, I'm glad to know. Thanks!
#home #page #wordpress
  • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
    You MUST have 2 Pages already created BEFORE you go into the Settings > Reading.
    It is that simple: you can not select what doesn't exist.

    P.S. what you see in a default WP setting as "home/front/main" page is NOT A PAGE as we know the word in WP. It is the standard multi-post view of your posts displayed by the main (index) template.
    Signature

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3277046].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author JustaWizard
      Hey Istvan, thanks for the speedy reply - I do understand, and I was just in there creating a new page called "home", but then Wordpress makes the URL mydomainname.com/home and the home page should be just domain.com/.

      So what's the deal with that, how do you make a home page in wordpress with the right permalink?

      BTW, I set my permalink structure like this: /%category%/%postname%/

      Thanks!
      David
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3277068].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author JustaWizard
      PS: Istvan, after creating a page called "home", I have 2 "home" links in the nav. Also a problem.

      What the heck IS that first "home" page, where is it? How come it's not in the posts or pages listing for me to edit or delete after creating 2 pages and setting the reading settings properly.

      Dang this is maddening!

      Thanks for the help!

      David
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3277079].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author BrianMullen
        Hi,

        Try, wordpress.org/support/topic/how-to-delete-home-page

        Another option is, en.support.wordpress.com/pages/hide-pages/

        Brian

        brianmullen.co.uk


        Originally Posted by JustaWizard View Post

        PS: Istvan, after creating a page called "home", I have 2 "home" links in the nav. Also a problem.

        What the heck IS that first "home" page, where is it? How come it's not in the posts or pages listing for me to edit or delete after creating 2 pages and setting the reading settings properly.

        Dang this is maddening!

        Thanks for the help!

        David
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3277131].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author VegasGreg
    In order to select a page as your home page, you have to create a page.

    Once you create that page, then you can select that as your home page to display.

    Then when you go to your domain.com you will see that newly created home page.

    You can also access that page by going to domain.com/home, but you don't want to publicize that link, just the domain name.

    Most themes automatically add "Home" to the main navigational menu by default. So if you add a new page called "Home" it will add that as well. To remove that or change the names/links it is easiest to use the new custom menu system built in to WP 3.0+ and compatible themes.

    If your theme doesn't support custom menus, then you will need to edit the code inside the header.php file.
    Signature

    Greg Schueler - Wordpress Fanatic... Living The Offline Marketing Dream...

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3278772].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
    PS: Istvan, after creating a page called "home", I have 2 "home" links in the nav. Also a problem.
    Yes, it could be a problem... although, to be honest, it is a problem created not by you or WP - it is created by idiotic wannabe theme "designers". They hard code a "home" link into the header.php of the theme, although nobody asked them to do it!
    Signature

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3280556].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author FMLLC
    I have had the problem many of times. Ended up being easier to modify themes that I had worked on before that didnt have the double home page issue. I know it doesnt solve your problem but I got tired of beating my head against the wall as well
    Signature
    My Favorite 2 Today: Zenagen & Zenagen Hair
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3281410].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author SteveJohnson
    I try to explain this to my clients like this: 'Home' isn't a page. It's what comes to the browser screen when a visitor types in just the domain name. In static HTML sites, the 'home' file is usually named 'default.html' or 'index.html', not 'home.html'.

    'Home' is whatever file the server has been told to serve up when someone hits the bare domain name.

    So try and think of the 'home page' as the 'domain landing page'. THAT is what you set in WordPress's Reading options.

    The confusing part, in WordPress, comes from having to set the 'posts' page. All WordPress is looking for is a previously created page name. Whatever content you might put on that particular page is never displayed. WP uses the page name internally to create an address to display what would normally be your front page - your posts page.

    Clear as mud?
    Signature

    The 2nd Amendment, 1789 - The Original Homeland Security.

    Gun control means never having to say, "I missed you."

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3281586].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Steven Garret
      It totally depends on the Theme.

      Here is what I do usually as my very first steps when starting to build one out.
      1. Upload theme
      2. Create Blog and Home page
      3. Go switch the Setting in the Reading header to choose blog as blog and home and home.
      4. Check to see if I have 2 home tabs on site.
      5. If i DO have 2 tabs I go edit the Header code and remove the hard coded tab.
      6. Make sure the home is set to position 1 in the order settings on the pages.
      That should be about it. sometime it take tweaking of the header code that contains the navigation and sometimes it doesnt...

      Steve
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3283929].message }}

Trending Topics