About 40% of the world population has the Internet connection. Currently, more than 3 billion people have access to the Internet. With the advancement of the technology, our lifestyle is digital-driven as interpersonal connections have been shifted to Internet connections. Everyone has adapted technology and if you are still not in this connection, then it’s time to get on, on the online bandwagon.
Whether you are a blogger or an enterprise and looking for ways to extend your name and make the world aware of your service, then the website is the platform to start the development with. If you have a business but doesn’t have a website, then you are losing out on great opportunities for your business. A well-developed website can be used to implement and accomplish many marketing stratagems making your business to be at the pinnacle. You should know that the benefits websites provide to the businesses are just immeasurable. It is imperative to have an online presence. In simple words, if your audience/customers are aware of your service but are unable to reach you, then there is no point of your service.
For your business to grab more eyeballs, to drive the growth path, to generate more revenue, your voice needs to be heard and achieving your business goals, your brand name should be visible and for that, web development is the key that can give it a realistic touch. Websites are the soul of any business whether you are an online retailer, blogger, e-commerce or any online portal and community.
Do you want to run the risk of burning down that communication bridge between you and your customer? The obvious answer is – NO.
But that’s not the only risk you will face as there are certain points that should be considered for your website design and development.
How to Create a Custom HomePage in WordPress for Your Website; 8 Techniques To Use When Developing WordPress Websites…
In this step-by-step tutorial we teach you how to create a custom home page in WordPress using the custom page templating snippet and your ever available WordPress admin.
Following things to consider before developing a website in WordPress:
1. Have a crystal clear goal:
Before developing websites, the first thing you need to ensure is what is the ultimate goal of your website and you need to coalesce all your different ideas to serve the common purpose. You have to incorporate cost-effective methodologies and need to take into account the cost of developing a website. You have to keep in mind about creating a clean and appealing design. A website without a purpose will serve, little, if any, benefit.
2. Navigation:
From functionality to appearance, to integrity to navigation all these factors determine the effectiveness and capability of your website. It takes a lot in creating an eye-popping and user-friendly website but it is worth a shot. You should develop a proper page hierarchy and make sure that all the functionality of your site is working properly and that users find it easy to navigate through your site, hence, creating an user-rich experience. Conduct an in-depth view of your site not as a developer but as a visitor.
3. Choose the perfect domain name and Host:
A domain name reflects the brands’ image. Why it is crucial to incorporate a good domain name because you have to also incorporate SEO in the site. Brand identity and a well-optimized site lead into a higher rank in the search engines. Businesses that are easily noticeable tend to draw more customer.
4. SEO-friendly:
Whether you are developing a new website or just enhancing the existing one, one thing is sure that you need to develop the website more SEO-friendly. You have to improve on the codes and keep it reviewing from time to time, albeit it is a strenuous process but it will increase the overall return on investment. SEO-friendly code paints a clear picture of your website making it rank higher.
5. Content, layout and color:
Your website should contain good and informative contents to draw the customer’s attention also target certain unique keywords to rank higher in the search engines. The type of the images, data, bar graph used will also determine the loading time of your website, therefore, choose wisely. Neat layout and good color combination grab the visitor’s attention faster, so, focus on this part too.
6. Speed do matter:
You can add a boost of speed to your WordPress website because of CDN (Content Delivery Network). CDN changes the way your website handles JavaScript, static content like images and CSS. It caches your static content to create faster page loading, lower response time which helps your website to rank higher in the search engines. You can have a look at CloudFlare, MaxCDN, Incapsula etc.
SEO benefits of CDN:
- Low response time
- Increased website speed
- Fast web pages loading
After having a look at the aforementioned points, you must now, have a slight idea about where to steer the direction. These are few trivial steps but the benefits are just immeasurable. All the points can work wonders for any site.
After overcoming the first hurdle, what lies ahead is how to proceed forward and how to keep the ball rolling. The homepage is a zone that lets users have their own space for thinking. It reflects the website’s vision and core work values. A homepage is the most viewed part of any website.
Do you want to create a custom homepage in WordPress? As you know that WordPress has different layouts for different pages, hence, you can choose accordingly. A custom homepage allows you to have a different layout in appearance from the other pages.
Techniques to create a custom homepage in WordPress:
Creating a custom homepage in WordPress requires a basic knowledge and understanding of HTML and PHP. To effectively create a page template in WordPress, you should also be familiar with JavaScript and CSS. Understanding of WordPress admin area and WordPress technicalities would be an add-on.
- Create a custom WordPress Page Template: to add a custom homepage to your current WordPress theme, you have to start a new page template. You need to copy the following code into a blank file using the text editor. If you already have a page that you want to use as a custom homepage, then add this code at the top of that file.
<?php/*_x000D_Template Name: My Custom HomePage_x000D_*/
You can save this file as templatename.php such as homepage.php.
- Building your web page: build your webpage using the file you have had saved. You are free to choose from JavaScript, CSS or HTML but you need to make sure that all the supporting files are stored in a common folder so that it is easy to identify them in the pool of the files. Steps for creating a webpage:
– create a new page (Pages > add new page)
– add a suitable title to the page (templatename.php)
– select “custom homepage” from the template drop down “page attributes”
– click on the “publish” button.
- Description boxes: description boxes can prove beneficial to your website as they provide useful information about your products and services. It is placed just below the slider so that it catches the user’s attention. You can have as many as description boxes if you want to show more details about the products.
- Creating the panel: whether you want to show all the panels separately or want to provide all the options under the same panel, you can easily do that as per your requirement. You just have to add the following code into your templatename.php file.
// Adding the Product Description panel::add_panel('product_description',array(_x000D_ 'priority'=>10,_x000D_ 'title'=>__('Product Description','magnificient'),_x000D_ 'description'=>__('Panels to show description of the products','magnificient'),));
- Uploading your custom page files: after you are done with the saving of the folder and creating a custom page, it is time to upload them on the server and the real test is to check their functionality. The PHP file you created by the name of templatename.php, needs to go in the main folder of your current theme that should have a directory path similar to that:
/var/www/html/wp-content/themes/your-theme
After doing that, upload your templatename.php to your theme directory followed by all the supporting files for your new template homepage into the same directory.
- Editing your homepage: after uploading the homepage, you need to edit the homepage so that it is capable of grabbing attention. Here are few steps:
– create a gallery or slideshow to project your website.
– make your website enchanting and link it with some other posts.
– go for images, texts etc that set the tone of your site.
- Activation of the custom homepage: now you have to activate the homepage from the WordPress admin so that the rest of the pages get connected with the homepage. Few simple steps will guide you in connecting your homepage with other pages.
– login to your WordPress admin dashboard.
– click on the “pages” section and then on “add new” to upload the new page.
– on the right side of the page, there is a template drop down where you can see your template file.
– after selecting that template file, publish it.
- Functioning of the homepage: after having done with the publishing of the custom home page, it is time to cross check whether the uploaded homepage is functioning. At the top of the add page dialog there is “view page”, click on it and you will be redirected to the custom homepage. If you really want your homepage to serve its purpose, then you have to take into account the following steps:
– A full established custom menu pointing to some of your best contents and categories.
– Provides a smooth navigation and enriching user experience.
– Include some useful widgets in the sidebar, to help the user find their way around and get an insight of what your website is all about.
Wrapping it up:
That’s it – through this article, you have been briefed about how to make a custom home page for the WordPress website. After following the aforementioned, you should be able to create and add a customized homepage for your WordPress website. I believe that this article should get you off in the right direction so wait no more and just get started.
Author Bio:
Emily Smith is an ed-tech enthusiast and has been associated with CWS Technology as a writer for more than 7 Years. CWS is the leading web development company that also provides PSD to WordPress service and other IT solutions. Emily has a passion for writing on emerging technologies like application management outsourcing, consulting, system integration etc.
