Right after activating your theme, you may find your website is empty and has a blank homepage.
Other times, it may display a listing of the most recent posts. Our premium themes come with a custom-designed homepage that only requires you to create a few posts to populate it.
How Is The Homepage Structured?
Our themes come with a custom, pre-designed homepage that includes a number of elements by default.
For instance, you may find a portfolio theme has the following elements in the homepage:
- A full width slider
- A set of mini-features with icons
- A list of portfolio items
- A list of the most recent posts
In this case, the first three pieces of the homepage are composed of custom post types, which as you create will start appearing automatically on their corresponding places. If you create a number of Slides, then the slider will start taking shape on its own– no need to manually construct the homepage.
Fixed Homepage Elements
The way these elements are laid out is fixed, but you can add as many as you want (from the provided ones) or opt out of them completely. For example, if there are no slides created, the slider will not appear at all. The homepage is made this way to save you plenty of time, and create a working homepage in a matter of minutes (and not worrying about the layout).
Customizable Homepage Elements
Beneath these fixed elements, you will find a list of your most recent posts along with a sidebar. This post listing is standard to all themes, and can be turned on and off in the Customizer, by going to Layout > Homepage.
The reason this blog-like area can be displayed is because WordPress always shows the latest posts in the homepage, regardless of the type of theme being used.
Setting A Static Page As The Homepage
The post listing in the homepage is displayed using the index.php template file, which is used by WordPress as the homepage.
However, if you want to include custom content on the homepage, go to Appearance > Customize > Homepage Settings or Appearance > Customize > General Theme Options. Keep in mind that this will vary depending on the theme used. You can also go to the Reading Settings and select a static page as the homepage. What this does is swap the template used in the homepage (with the list of posts) for a specific page, so its content may be displayed.
Setting up a static page as the home still allows you to preserve all the fixed elements that normally appear (features, portfolio items…). This gives you the opportunity to add custom content to the home while also making use of the predefined layouts that come by default.