WordPress themes usually display a stream of posts on the front page, however, you can use a standard page instead. When creating a static front page, you will often want to set up a new page to display your stream of posts as well. The following instructions will cover how to do both and add them to a menu.

The first thing you’ll need to do is create two new pages: One for the front page and one to display your posts.

The front page is more commonly referred to as the “homepage”, but the two terms are usually interchangeable.

Create the Front Page

1. Go to Pages → Add New
2. Give your front page a title (“Home” works well for now)
3. Click the Publish button

Some themes will show the front page title, while others don’t, so you may want to update the title as you see fit.

Create the Page for Posts

The page for the stream of posts is typically used to display a blog or news section. It’s a special page and the title and content aren’t always used, so you’ll need to experiment or refer to your theme’s documentation.

1. Go to Pages → Add New
2. Give your posts page a title (“Blog” or News” work well)
3. Click the Publish button

The important thing to keep in mind with the posts page is that its “slug” is where your posts will be accessible. For instance, if the slug is “blog”, the URL for accessing posts will be http://example.com/blog/.

Assigning the Pages

Now that the pages have been created, you’ll need to let WordPress know it should use them for the front page and posts page.

1. Go to Appearance → Customize → Static Front Page
2. Choose the option that says “A static page” for the Front page displays setting
3. Select your front page in the Front page dropdown
4. Select your page for posts in the Posts page dropdown
5. Click the Save Changes button

Adding the Pages to a Menu

Custom Menus provide granular control over the links that appear in the various navigation areas on your site. In most cases, you’ll want to add your new pages to a menu so your visitors can easily access them.

1. Go to Appearance → Customize → Menus
2. Select the menu to add the pages to (or create a new one)
3. Click the Add Items button at the bottom of the menu items list.
4. In the Pages section, add your front page and posts page
5. Click the blue Save & Publish button at the top of the panel

Congratulations, you’ve successfully created a static front page, a page for posts, and added them to a menu!