WordPress, by default, is a blog upon installation, showing your most recent posts on your home page. While this setup is great for bloggers, it may not suit small businesses aiming to showcase their products and services. In such cases, you might want a custom home page and a separate blog page. This article will guide you through creating and customizing a separate blog page using the 10Web Website Builder.
Essential concepts
Before diving into creating a separate blog page, it's important to understand some key terms and concepts related to WordPress blog pages.
- Post: A post is an article on your website, much like print media such as newspapers or magazines. Posts provide fresh content for visitors, increasing engagement and return visits. They also attract organic traffic via search engines and social media.
- Archive: WordPress uses an Archive to display a list of posts created on the site by the author(s). These lists can be filtered by terms such as categories, tags, authors, and dates.
- Category: Categories are used to group posts with similar content in the archive template. They can be named and added to your menu for easy navigation by your visitors (e.g., News, Sports, Lifestyle, Events, Weather).
- Permalink: A permalink or “slug” is the permanent URL of your post on your website. These are set up in WordPress by navigating to Dashboard > Settings > Permalinks. Permalinks should be all lowercase and hyphenated with no spaces.
Creating an Archive Page
To create and assign a new page as an Archive to display your blog posts:
- Navigate to Dashboard > Pages > Add New or select + New > Page from the top admin bar.
- Name your page (e.g., Blog, News).
- Leave the content area blank.
- Publish the page.
To set this page as your Archive:
- Go to Dashboard > Settings > Reading.
- Switch Your Homepage Displays setting to A Static Page (so that it stops displaying Blog posts) and select the page you want to serve as your homepage instead in the corresponding field
- In the Posts page field select your new blog page you’ve just created.
To add categories to your menu:
- Navigate to Dashboard > Appearance > Customize.
- Expand the menu options and add your categories.
- Publish your menu.
Customizing your Archive Page with 10Web Builder
While functional, the default design of an Archive page can be simplistic. Customizing it with 10Web Builder allows you to add design elements and widgets for enhanced functionality.
To customize your Archive page:
- Go to WP Admin > Templates > 10Web Templates.
- Select the Archive tab.
- Click Edit with Elementor under the template.
You can now use the drag-and-drop editor to customize the Archive page, adding design elements and widgets as needed.
Posts Archive Widget
The key element of the Archive template is the Posts Archive widget. It dynamically fetches and displays posts as structured lists. You can customize the number of posts shown, pagination, featured image display, and overall visual style in the widget settings. Refer to the dedicated article for detailed settings and configurations: Posts Archive Widget.
Creating a Post
Once your Archive page is ready, you can start creating posts.
To create a new post:
- Navigate to Dashboard > Posts > Add New or select + New > Post from the top admin bar.
- Enter a title and create your content using the block editor.
- Edit the permalink if needed.
- Select or create a category.
- Add a featured image from the media library or upload one.
- Publish your post or save it as a draft.
Customizing your posts with the Single Post Template
Just like the Archive page, you can customize individual posts using templates. This ensures consistency across your site, allowing you to focus on content creation without worrying about design variations.
What is the Posts Single template?
The Posts Single template is a pre-added template in the 10Web Templates section. It helps maintain a consistent look for all individual posts on your site.
How to access and edit the Posts Single template
- Go back to WP Admin > Templates > 10Web Templates.
- Navigate to the Single tab.
- Find the template named Posts Single and click Edit with Elementor.
- Edit the Single template using the drag-and-drop Builder like a regular page.
Note:
By default, the Posts Single template conditions are set to include all posts on your site. You can adjust these settings to exclude certain posts from inheriting the global template if needed.
Customizing with the Post Content widget
The Post Content widget is essential for the Posts Single template as it dynamically displays the current post’s content. Do not remove this widget from the template.
You can customize the widget’s layout and styling, such as changing alignment, applying typography styles, and more. For a comprehensive list of Post Content widget settings and configurations, please refer to this dedicated article: Post Content.