Combining Blog & Website

A number of you have been asking me how you might go about creating a WordPress site that has one page that functions like a blog (with posts) and other pages that function like a static website. I’ve done some investigating and have found some options that may work for you. You may want to do this for your website portfolio item, for your service project website, and/or for just your personal know-how.

• If you have a blog site that is separate from your WordPress website, and you would like to include a link to that site (or really any external website) as part of your main navigation structure, here’s what you do. From the “Dashboard,” go to “Appearance,” and then “Menus.” On the left side, click on “links” (under “pages”). Type the URL you want to link to (which may be your blog), and then type what heading you’d like to appear in your menu within the “Link Text” box. Then press the “Add to Menu” button, which will make it appear in your menu structure to the right. You can move it around to where you want it to appear, then be sure to press the “Save Menu” button.
• Here is another option if you want your blog and website to be truly one site (rather than a website link to your separate blog site (which is the above option). WordPress treats your “home” page as (or the page that your WordPress web address lands on) as a blog page. However, you can change the title of that to read “Blog” (instead of “Home”), and you can create a separate page you call “home” that is static. The main problem with this, though, is that readers will first land on your “blog” page and would have to click “home” to go home. Some folks may not mind this, but it’s technically not ideal. “Home” pages are usually the one you land on when you go to the web address. Nonetheless, you can do this by going to Dashboard > Appearance > Menus. Within the Menu Structure on the right side of the screen, click the “Home” link (NOTE: It should say “custom” next to it instead of “page”). Then change the navigation label to “Blog” or to whatever you’d like. Be sure to “Save Menu.”

These aren’t the only ways to do this, so if you discover another option, please let me know. I’m always learning new things about WordPress and from my students, so please share! 😀