Wordpress Wednesdays: Widgetized Front Page
Posted on August 27th, 2008
When most people consider building a blog with Wordpress, the default inclination is to have the homepage display a list of all the recent posts arranged in a reverse chronological order. The most recent post sits at the top, either in its entirety or as a snippet, and then each successive post appears underneath. This is the layout that you’ll find on the BlueFur blog, Beyond the Rhetoric, and Stephen Fung dot Net, for instance.
This arrangement may not be suitable for all blogs. Some corporate blogs, for example, may prefer to have a static home page as the first thing visitors see when they arrive at the home directory. The blog posts can still be there, but the home page can outline some of that critical information that the company wants all visitors to see. If this is the layout that you’d prefer, you can simply designate a page to act as the homepage.
To add even more customization to this particular layout, it is also possible to have the front page set up in a widgetized fashion, much like how you may have widgets in your blog theme’s sidebar. This allows for easy updating of certain sections and it allows for more flexibility in terms of the actual appearance itself. From this page, you can post a quick “about” blurb, highlight some important posts, and perhaps offer your contact information.
For the full tutorial and a little help on how to set up a widgetized home page, check out the original post at Rob Malon dot Com.
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Related Topics:
Business 101: Your First Company Website, Part TwoWordpress Wednesdays: Smart ArchivesWordPress Wednesday: Front Page About Bio?Wordpress Wednesdays: Maintenance ModeWordpress Wednesdays: Personalize and Monetize the 404 Page
4 Comments
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There is also a plugin called “Sticky Post” which will keep a post at the top of your homepage. It is handy if you want to keep a “welcome” at the top of your page while still having the regular blog format underneath.
I think that far too often people think of Wordpress as blogging software, rather than an amazing CMS.
It would be incredibly easy to build an entire corporate website using Wordpress, with the blog a secondary thought.
Great points you guys have made! I use WordPress for all my sites, even if they aren’t really going to be traditional blogs. As Parker notes, WP is a great CMS. If you want to do something with it, most likely someone has already built that functionality. Too cool!
Interesting approach. I used Wordpress as a CMS for my website, and then installed Wordpress in a folder to use it as a blog (http://www.aaronhall.com//blog/). Your suggestions hear would have allowed me to have only one Wordpress installation. If only I had read your post sooner. Thanks for the great advice.