We have a number of websites and they are all structured in different ways but one of our favorite formats at the moment is to use a static page as the home page rather than the regular blog type structure. It works quite well for product based sites like our Amazon sites as it makes the site look less like a blog and more like a regular website. It also opens up a myriad of opportunities for adding different types of content to that home page.

When you create a static page for your blog what you are doing is essentially replacing the basic blog post format on the home page to just one single page. For instance, this blog’s home page has a list of blog posts listed down the page and that is what most blogs look like. However, if we decided to create a static page for our home page here, the blog posts would no longer appear and it it’s place would be one page of content.

Will This Work for Any WordPress Blog?

Technically speaking it will work on any type of WordPress blog but that doesn’t mean that it will actually suit every type of WordPress blog. This blog for instance has a community feel to it and readers leave lots of comments, so in this instance we prefer to have the blog style remain on the home page. We wouldn’t change it to a static page.

However, for some of our product sites using a static page is a much better option as we generally don’t get a lot of comments on our product blogs and not a lot of repeat visitors. For product sites, the blog style can be limiting in some ways especially if you really want to promote some of your best reviews which you can do extremely well with a static home page.

How Do You Create a Static Home Page?

WordPress have made it super easy to create a static home page. It’s just a matter of point and click. However, you still have to add your content of course but we will go into that a little further on in this article.

Here are the steps for creating a static home page in WordPress:

1. In your WordPress dashboard go to Pages –> Add New.

2. Create a page called Home Page (you can actually call it whatever you like). Add your content (refer below for more info on what to add) and Publish the page. (Note that you can create a full-width page if your WordPress theme provides you with that option).

3. In your WordPress dashboard go to Settings —> Reading and click the Static Page option and from the drop-down field next to it select the Page you just created in step 2.

4. Click Save Changes and go to your home page on your site and your new page will now be displayed.

How to Get Your Blog to Display Again

Now you all might be thinking where has my blog disappeared to if it is no longer displayed on the home page. In order to display your blog again you simply need to take the following steps:

1. In your WordPress dashboard go to Pages –> Add New.

2. In the Title field enter the world ‘Blog’. (You can call it whatever you like but Blog is the most appropriate title.) Don’t enter any content on the page. Leave the content field completely empty.

3. Click the Publish button to publish the page.

4. Go to Settings –> Reading and from the Posts Page drop-down box select the Blog page you just created in step 2.

5. Click Save Changes.

Check out your website and you should now see a Blog option in the navigation bar. When you click on that you will be taken to your blog. If you don’t see it then it is probably because you have created a custom menu so you will need to go to Appearance –> Menus to add the Blog page to your main menu navigation bar.

What Sort of Content Can You Add to Your Static Home Page?

You really can add whatever you like to your static home page. Here are some options:

1. A Welcome box -  A welcome section is a great way to introduce yourself and your website. Add your photo and a short blurb about who you are and why you started the website. This can work particularly well for product review sites as most people gain a sense of trust when they see a photo of a real person. Here’s an example:

2. The top reviews on your site – If you have purchased the Amazonian Profit Plan then you will know that we suggest that you start by creating five reviews for your website. You can promote those five reviews by linking to them from the home page. This is just a suggestion but you can create a heading called ‘Most Popular Reviews’ and under that add a thumbnail image of each product and next to each thumbnail add a short blurb about the product and a link to the review on your site. It might look something like this although we did use the Flexsqueeze theme to make it look as good as it does with the star ratings and the More Info button but it is simply a table which you can create in WordPress without the need for Flexsqueeze.

	POPULAR REVIEWS
	Panasonic Cordless Drill The Pansonic XYZ Cordless Drill is one of the best on the market for the home handyman. Read our full review of the Panasonic Cordless Drill.
	Makita Cordless Drill This is my personal favorite. The Makita ABC Cordless Drill is a must have for any home handyman.

3. A directory menu linking to key posts/pages on your site. You can see an example of how this works  on our Affiliate Reviews HQ site. If you go to the home page of the site you will see that it uses a static page and on the page is a simple directory with two menu headings – one for the latest reviews and one for the latest comparisons. We don’t have to manually add the links to that directory each time we publish a new post or page. It all happens automatically for us because we use a free plugin called List Category Posts.

5. Videos – You can add your own video or grab a video from Youtube to add to your static home page.

6. Widgets – This one will only work if you have a theme that allows widgets on pages and not just in the sidebar. We recently reviewed the Catalyst theme which has this feature. If you read the Catalyst theme review on our Affiliate Reviews HQ site you will see how we managed to create a home page on one of our test sites purely with widgets. This makes creating a home page extremely easy because you don’t have to play around with tables which often don’t always work very well. Being able to drag a widget onto your home page has to be one of the easiest ways to make a professional looking page.

7. Content – Google loves content so ensure that you don’t just have a home page that is only full of video and images.  Add a few paragraphs that include some of your top keywords.

These are just a few examples of what you can do with your home page. If you have any other ideas please let us know in the comments below.