Oh no! I set up my website but it says Not Found
Has this been your experience?
Wordpress was originally set up to be a blogging platform only. As it grew, they added resources so you can turn it into a website if you want. They didn't really change the original set up though, so when you first go into your wordpress site, the default home page (called front page) is set to be the blog.
It is going to act like a blog and will tell you it can't find any of your posts. Now, when you think you haven't actually made a post yet, that seems pretty reasonable. Yet people still think it means there is something wrong with their site.
Let's change this
You can do one of two things. You can write a post and that will appear on your front page instead of the 404 or Not Found message, or you can set a static page.
A static page means you will have a front page that works like a normal page, nothing will be updated on it until you go in to make the updates yourself.
If you decide you want a static page as the home page, then there are a couple of steps you need to take.
Step 1. Go into the admin area and find Pages on your menu (it's near the top). Add 2 new pages. Give one the title you want for your home page, such as welcome or home. Give the other a blog name. This could be blog or articles, posts, or whatever you feel fits with the overall theme of your site.
Step 2. Once they have both been created, go back to your menu. Find Appearnace then customise and click on that.
It will open to a new page with a menu on the left.
This is where you can change the site name and the tagline (Just another wordpress theme is the current tagline).
Step 3. At the bottom of this menu will be an option called Static Front Page. Click this.
Step 4 Choose the 'A static page' option and a small menu will appear below.
Step 5.Front page: Choose the page you have decided to set up as your front/home page.
Step 6.Posts page: choose the page you have created to be the new blog page.
Step 7. Click the save button at the top of the menu.
Done.
You have now set a new front page and blog page. Now go and take a look at your websie in a new window.
Recent Comments
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Hi Michelle,
I'm operating like this since I created my first website. But I don't have a post page, all the posts are in different categories,having all a tag in the main menu.
If you save them as a post, they will all list on one page, unless you don't allocate a page specifically as the blog. Is this what you mean?
No,the posts are allocated to specific categories (4-6 cat) and the main menu tags are categories (beside The home and About me pages)
All posts can be allocated to specific categories and still show up on a blog page, if one is allocated.
But I don't allocate a blog page for posts, in my case this is useless having a page with tons of posts, for ex. I have one home cooking website with a few hundred recipes. There I'm operating with categories and with tags for the index page.
Hi Michelle - very useful info. Can you please tell me which section of the training this is in so I know whether I have missed it or just not got to it yet please. Also when I preview my site after setting up my theme - Expressions - nothing shows. Is this because I have not done what you mentioned? My site is AllThingsNatural.siterubix.com if you have a moment to take a look for me. Cheers
Hi Berny, I think the info is mentioned in one of the lessons, but briefly.
I looked at your site. Have you created pages and set the menu yet? A lot of themes need the menu to be set before it will show.
As for nothing on the page, I would say this is probably why, it's the blog, your's just doesn't have the nothing found message on it :)
Really well done, Michelle. I really like the way you listed it step-by-step; it just makes it so easy to take in and retain that way.
Oh great you got a post up explaining it. I know you were thinking about it the other day, I have seen the question come up quite a bit lately so like you mentioned I am sure it is getting lost in shuffle with all the other information. Great post as always Michelle.
thank you it is always useful to know and you explain it very well I can understand the process
Thank you for the break down Michelle, WA is what it is because of helpful contributors like yourself.
Thank you for this, I Just saw it on the boot camp video but I guess I already had it the right way. but this is a nice thorough explanation. keep doing it you got this.
Thank you :) It is mentioned in the training, but I think for a lot of people there is so much to take in, it kind of gets skipped :)
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Fantastic, as always Michelle. Thanks so much for the easy to understand instructions!!! :)
So glad it made sense lol. Thank you