How to Edit a WordPress Homepage (Easily & Effectively)

Do you want to create a custom homepage for your WordPress site?

By default, the WordPress homepage displays your blog posts, but you can edit it to show something different. For example, your homepage could be a landing page that highlights your products and services.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily edit and customize your WordPress homepage.

What Is the WordPress Homepage?

Your homepage is the ‘front page’ of your WordPress website. It’s the first page that shows up when a user visits your domain name.

For instance, if you type in www.wpbeginner.com into your browser, the page you land on is our website’s homepage, where you can see our latest blog posts:

Why Edit the WordPress Homepage?

If you’ve decided to create a blog, then it makes perfect sense to just show your blog posts on the homepage.

But what if you’re using WordPress to build a small business website or even to run an online store? In those cases, you may prefer to highlight your products or promotions on your homepage.

Here’s a business website homepage example from OptinMonster, the best WordPress popup plugin out there. Their site has a great blog, but that isn’t the focus of their homepage. Instead, they’ve got a really clear call to action.

Perhaps you’ve already tried to set a custom page as the homepage in WordPress, but you’re struggling to make it look right.

If that’s the case, then you’re in the right place.

We’re going to take you step by step through setting up a homepage and customizing it to match your needs. That way, you can make a great first impression and encourage your visitors to take the actions that are most important to your site’s mission.

That might mean buying a digital product from you, signing up to join your membership site, or donating to your fundraising campaign.

We’re going to cover a few different methods that you can use to create your custom WordPress homepage.

You can use these quick links to jump straight to the different parts of the tutorial:

• Editing Your Homepage With the Theme Customizer
• Editing Your Homepage With the Block Editor
• Editing Your Homepage With a Theme Builder Plugin
• Editing Your Homepage With a Page Builder Plugin
• Setting Your Homepage in WordPress

Editing Your Homepage With the Theme Customizer

Some of the best WordPress themes will create a homepage design for you, and provide options so you can easily edit it.

You can find these options by visiting Appearance » Customize on the admin sidebar. This will launch the WordPress theme customizer with a live preview of your theme.

The Theme Customizer will have different options for different themes. Your preview and the available options may look different depending on the theme you are using. We’re using the free Hestia theme in this example.

To edit any part of the homepage, simply click the blue pencil icon next to it. Here, we’re editing the image, text, and button at the top of the homepage.

Note: As soon as you make edits, they’ll be shown in the preview of your site. Those changes won’t be live on your site until you publish them.

If you want to remove a section from the homepage, then you just need to click the blue eye icon in the top left corner of that section.

You can also remove sections and add them back in using the ‘Frontpage Sections’ tab.

Once you’re happy with your homepage, you need to click the ‘Publish’ button to make it live.

Here’s how our homepage looks, live on the website:

Using your theme’s built-in options is the quickest way to set up your homepage. However, some themes may not have many options, or you may not be satisfied with how your homepage looks.

Don’t worry, there are plenty of other ways for you to edit your homepage and give it the look you want.

Editing Your Homepage With the Block Editor

The WordPress block editor is a simple way to create a custom homepage, although it’s limited by your theme’s design.

To use the block editor, simply go to the Pages » All Pages screen and edit the ‘Home’ page that you created earlier.

Now you can start creating the content for your page.

In this part of the tutorial, we’ll be using a few simple blocks to create a basic homepage.

First, we’ll add a welcome message to the page. You can do this by simply clicking on the page to start typing. WordPress will automatically create a paragraph block for you.

If you want to make the text larger, then it’s easy to do that in the block settings on the right hand side. Just click on one of the preset sizes, or you can click on the ‘Set custom size’ icon and type any size you like.

You can also change the color of your text, using the ‘Color’ options for the text or background.

Next, we’ll add an image to the page. You can do this by clicking the (+) symbol and then selecting the Image block.

You’ll find it in the Media section, or you can search for it using the search bar.

You can pick an image from your media library or upload a new one.

Next, we’ve added another paragraph block, with the text ‘Check out our latest posts here’.

We’ve then added a ‘Latest Posts’ block, which we’ve set to show the post excerpt and featured images, as well as the post titles. You can find out more about the Latest Posts block in our tutorial on displaying recent posts in WordPress.

You can add as many blocks as you want to your homepage. You may also want to use a ‘full width’ or ‘no sidebars’ template for your page if your theme has one.

For example, when using the Astra theme, you can customize the layout of the page from the Astra Settings pane. Other themes may provide a section in the Document settings pane.

Once you’re happy with your homepage, you should click the ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’ button on the top right of the screen to push your changes live.

Here’s how our finished homepage looks:

What if you want to go further with your homepage? One option is to try some of these best block plugins for WordPress to add new functionality, such as a contact form, testimonials, reviews, and more.

Another great option is to use a more powerful theme builder or page builder for WordPress to create something that looks gorgeous and professional.

In the next parts of this tutorial, we’ll cover SeedProd, a theme builder, and Divi by Elegant Themes, a page builder.

Editing Your Homepage With a Theme Builder Plugin

The easiest way to edit your homepage is by using SeedProd. It’s the best WordPress theme builder plugin and can create beautiful website layouts and custom templates without writing any code.

You can use SeedProd to create a fully custom WordPress theme, including a custom homepage template.

Note: There is a free version of SeedProd, but you will need the Pro version to access the theme builder and edit the homepage template.

First, you need to install and activate the SeedProd plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to enter your license key. You can find this information under your account on the SeedProd website.

After that, you can use SeedProd to easily create a WordPress theme, including a completely custom homepage from scratch.

Creating a Custom WordPress Theme

You can create a new theme in SeedProd by navigating to the SeedProd » Theme Builder page. Here, you’ll use one of SeedProd’s ready-made themes as a starting point. This will replace your existing WordPress theme with a new, custom design.

You can do that by clicking the ‘Themes’ button.

You will be shown a list of professionally designed themes that are designed for different types of websites. For example, there are templates called ‘Modern Business’, ‘Marketing Agency’, and ‘Mortgage Broker Theme’.

Take a look through the options and select one that best matches your needs by clicking the checkmark icon. For this tutorial, we’ll choose the ‘Digital Strategy’ theme.

Once you have chosen a theme, SeedProd will generate all the theme templates you need. It will include a template for your static homepage, as well as one for your blog’s index page.

Editing the Homepage Template

SeedProd makes it easy to edit any of these templates using a drag and drop page builder.

Simply click the ‘Edit Design’ link found under the ‘Homepage’ template. This will open the template in SeedProd’s visual editor.

This simple drag and drop builder will show a live preview of your page to the right and a toolbar on the left. You can add new blocks by dragging them onto the page, rearrange them by dragging them up and down with your mouse, and customize any block by clicking on it.

Notice that the template has already provided an attractive layout and added plenty of relevant content on the page. Now you just have to edit it to suit the purpose of your website.

When you hover your mouse over a block, a toolbar will appear.

If you click on the block, then you can adjust its settings in the left pane.

For example, when you click on the headline, you can edit the text, change the alignment, alter the font size, and more.

When you change a setting, you can immediately see it in the preview on the right.

For example, we’ll change the text to ‘All About WordPress’.

Once you’ve done this, you can click the ‘Blocks’ icon near the top of the settings page. This will return you to the Blocks view.

Next, we’ll edit the button text. You can click on the button labeled ‘What we do’ and edit the text to say ‘See the courses’.

Now we’ll scroll down our homepage until we come to the list of bullet points about the products and services you offer.

You can edit these in the same way, by clicking on a block and editing the text.

Your homepage should now look something like the screenshot below.

If you need to add more detail, then you can add another row of bullet points by clicking the blue ‘+’ icon at the bottom.

The SeedProd template may have included more sections than you can use. You can easily delete any blocks or sections you don’t need by simply clicking the trash icon.

For example, you can hover your mouse over the ‘Trusted By’ section of the homepage. Once the toolbar appears, you can click on the Trash icon to delete that section.

Near the bottom of the homepage there is a FAQ section. This was created using an Accordion block, which makes it simple to customize the questions and answers you want to include on your homepage.

When you click on the block, you are able to edit the text for each question and answer.

Once you have finished customizing your homepage, make sure you click the ‘Save’ button at the top of the screen. Then you can return to the list of templates by clicking the ‘X’ icon.

As you can see, SeedProd’s templates, drag and drop interface, and useful blocks make it ideal for editing your website’s homepage. For even more ideas, take a look at our guide on how to create a landing page with WordPress.

Editing the Blog Index Template

You can edit your blog index template in a similar way. You can learn how to do this by visiting our guide on how to create a separate page for blog posts in WordPress.

Using Method 2, you should scroll down to the section on customizing your blog page. Here you’ll learn how to add new blocks using drag and drop, and how to change the settings for each block on the page.

We’ll show you how to edit the Posts block to list your posts in multiple columns and display or hide the featured image for your posts.

There are settings for how many posts to display, and whether to show a post excerpt. You can also filter the index by post type, category, tag, or author, and change the sort order.

Enabling the SeedProd Theme

Once you have finished customizing the theme templates, you will need to publish the new custom theme. Simply toggle the ‘Enable SeedProd Theme’ setting to the ‘YES’ position.

If you haven’t already changed your WordPress Home and Blog page settings, then you’ll see a notification message. When you click the ‘OK’ button these settings will be changed for you.

You can now visit your website to view your new home page.

Editing Your Homepage With a Page Builder Plugin

Divi is a popular WordPress page builder plugin. It comes with a WordPress theme and a page builder plugin with dozens of gorgeous templates.

You can use the Divi page builder with any theme. For this tutorial, we’re going to use it with the Divi theme.

First, you’ll need to download, install, and activate the Divi theme from Elegant Themes. This includes the Divi builder, so you don’t need to install it separately. You will need to enter your username and API key under Divi » Theme Options » Updates in order to access the layout packs.

If you need help installing the theme, then take a look at our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress theme.

Once you’ve got the Divi theme and page builder up and running, you can set up your homepage. First, go to the Pages menu in your WordPress dashboard and then edit the homepage we created earlier.

Before you start editing your homepage, it’s a good idea to switch to the ‘Blank Page’ template under the ‘Template’ panel on the right. That way, your homepage won’t have a sidebar, title, menu, or any other default elements.

Next, you can click the ‘Use The Divi Builder’ button at the top of the screen.

Now, you’ll need to click the ‘Edit With The Divi Builder’ button in the center of the screen.

You should now see the Divi Welcome Screen. It includes a video tutorial on how to use Divi, a brief description of how to get started, and buttons to either start building your page or take a tour of Divi’s features.

We’ll click the ‘Start Building’ button at the bottom of the page.

Next, you’ll see a range of options you can use to create your page. We suggest using a premade layout as the basis for your homepage. This makes it really quick and easy to get your homepage set up.

Divi has an impressive range of different layouts to choose from. There are hundreds of different layout packs, and each of these has several different page layouts including homepages.

You can search through these by typing in a search term, or you can check the boxes to view only layouts that fit certain categories.

We’re going to use the ‘Travel Blog’ layout pack to create our homepage.

First, click on the pack that you want to use:

Next, you’ll see a description of the layout pack, plus the different page layouts that are available. You’ll probably want to use the ‘Home’ page or ‘Landing’ page for your homepage. We’re going to pick the ‘Home’ option.

Once you’ve chosen your layout, click the ‘Use This Layout’ button at the bottom of the page.

Divi will automatically import the layout for you. You’ll then see it live on your page, exactly as it’ll appear on your site. To edit any part of it, simply click on it.

Divi uses a system of rows (split into columns) and modules to create your page. With text modules, you can click on the text and type in whatever you want straight onto the screen.

Here, we’ve changed the header and the text below it:

With other modules, you can bring your mouse cursor over them and click the ‘Module Settings’ icon to edit them.

Here, we’re editing one of the number counters:

You can delete modules and rows in the same way, using the trash can icon.

You’ll likely want to use your own images on your homepage. You can change these by editing the module settings.

Note that the image at the top is set as the Background for a Fullwidth Header Module, so you’ll need to change it under Content » Background for that module:

Once you’re happy with the changes you’ve made to your page, you can click ‘Save’ at the bottom of the screen.

Sometimes the bottom row of buttons will be hidden.

If you can’t see them, then you’ll need to click the purple “…” button to open them up.

Here’s how our page looks live on the website:

Setting Your Homepage in WordPress

By default, WordPress displays your blog posts on the homepage.

That means that after creating and customizing your homepage, you’ll need to tell your WordPress site to display that page when someone visits your domain.

Let’s take a look at how to set a separate homepage and blog page in WordPress.

Pro Tip: Do you already have visitors to your site? Then you might want to put your site into maintenance mode while you’re setting up your homepage. Alternatively, you could set up a staging site where you can create your homepage before publishing it live.

First, simply go to Pages » Add New and name your new page Blog. After that, you can go ahead and publish the blank page.

Once your homepage and blog page are ready, you need to tell WordPress to start using these pages.

You can do this by going to Settings » Reading page in your WordPress admin area. You need to select ‘A static page’ option under the ‘Your homepage displays’ section. After that, go ahead and select your home and blog pages.

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.

WordPress will automatically display your latest posts on the blog page. For more details, you can see our guide on how to create a separate blog page in WordPress.

That’s it! You’ve created a great looking homepage in WordPress and set it up successfully.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to edit a WordPress homepage. You might also want to take a look at our guide on the must have WordPress plugins and our tips on how to improve WordPress SEO.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Edit a WordPress Homepage (Easily & Effectively) first appeared on WPBeginner.

December 08, 2022 at 12:58AM

How to Sell Excel or Google Spreadsheets in WordPress

Do you want to sell your Microsoft Excel or Google spreadsheets online?

By selling your spreadsheets as downloadable files, you can easily make money without having to pay for shipping or printing. Through WordPress, you can quickly and securely deliver your products to your customers.

In this article, we will show you how to easily sell your Excel or Google spreadsheets online using WordPress.

Which Platform Should You Use to Sell Excel or Google Spreadsheets

First, you’ll need to choose an eCommerce platform that you’ll use to sell your Excel or Google spreadsheets.

Because these spreadsheets are digital files that users can download to their computers after making a purchase, you should pick an eCommerce platform specifically designed for selling digital downloads.

Such a platform would have the proper features, licensing, and subscriptions built in which will make it easier for you to set up your store.

That’s why we recommend using WordPress and Easy Digital Downloads for selling your Excel and Google spreadsheets.

WordPress is the best website builder on the market that is used by over 43% of all the websites on the internet. It is an ideal choice as WordPress gives you full control over your website and allows you to create a user-friendly eCommerce store.

Easy Digital Downloads is the best WordPress plugin to sell digital products. We use EDD ourselves to sell many of our premium WordPress plugins.

With WordPress and Easy Digital Downloads, you can sell as many Microsoft Excel or Google spreadsheets as you want without having to pay high transaction fees.

With that being said, let’s dig in to see how easy it is to create a WordPress site with Easy Digital Downloads, so you can start selling your spreadsheets online.

Step 1. Setting Up Your WordPress Site

Before you start building your site, it’s important to know that there are two types of WordPress software: WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

We will be using WordPress.org as it gives you complete control over your website.

First of all, you’ll need a domain name and WordPress hosting to start selling your spreadsheets.

For detailed information on both, you can check out our guides on how to choose the best domain name and how to pick the best WordPress host.

We recommend using SiteGround for your website. It is a popular hosting provider that offers managed WordPress hosting for Easy Digital Downloads. It comes with a free SSL certificate, pre-installed and optimized EDD, and a huge 73% off.

Basically, you can create a website for less than $5 per month.

→ Click here to Claim this Exclusive SiteGround offer ←

For more details on how to set up your WordPress site, you can check out our guide on how to make a WordPress website.

If you don’t want to use SiteGround for. some reason, then we recommend checking out Bluehost, Hostinger, and WPEngine to see if they meet your needs.

Step 2. Setting Up Easy Digital Downloads

The free version of Easy Digital Downloads allows you to create an amazing online store. However, if you want to use add-ons such as Content Restriction, Recommended Products, or Recurring Payments, you will need the Pro version.

For this tutorial, we will use the free version. To begin, just you just need to install and activate the plugin. If you need any help, you can check out our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once it is installed and activated, go to Downloads » Settings page in your WordPress admin area. First, you need to set your store’s location so the plugin can calculate sales tax and auto-fill some fields.

To do this, scroll until you see the ‘Store Location’ section. In the ‘Bunsiness Country’ dropdown menu, choose the location where your business is based.

After that, you need to fill in the ‘Business Region’ field.

Here you can open the dropdown and choose the state or region your store operates from.

Once you’ve entered the information, click on the ‘Save Changes’ button.

Step 3. Setting Up Your Payment Gateway

When selling Excel or Google spreadsheets online, you’ll need a way to accept credit payments from your customers.

Easy Digital Downloads supports popular payment gateways including Stripe, PayPal, and Amazon Payments. If you want to add more payment gateways, then you may want to take a look at Easy Digital Downloads extensions.

To choose your payment gateway, simply click on the ‘Payments’ tab. Then make sure the ‘General’ tab is selected.

In the ‘Payment Gateways’ section, check the box for all the payment gateways that you want to add to your online store.

If you select more than one payment method, then you’ll also need to choose a default gateway.

You can choose any one you want, but we recommend selecting Stripe as your default gateway because Stripe accepts credit cards as well as Google Pay and Apple pay.

After selecting a default gateway, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on ‘Save Changes.’

Once the page reloads, you will now see some new tabs where you can configure each of your separate payment gateways.

The process of configuring the payment gateway will be slightly different depending which you use. We will be using Stripe as an example.

To start, simply click on the ‘Stripe’ tab. Then, click on the ‘Connect With Stripe’ button.

This launches a setup wizard which will walk you through a step-by-step process of configuring Stripe as your payment gateway. If you use multiple gateways, you’ll just need to repeat these steps for each one.

Also, by default, Easy Digital Downloads shows all your prices in U.S dollars. If you want to show your prices in any other currency, simply click on the ‘Currency’ tab and choose the one you want to use from the dropdown.

Just be aware that some payment gateways may not accept every currency. If you’re unsure, then it is always a good idea to check your chosen payment gateway’s website.

Once you’re done with the currency settings, simply click on the ‘Save Changes’ button at the bottom of the page.

Step 4. Turn Your Spreadsheets Into a Downloadable Product

Now that your WordPress site is set up with Easy Digital Downloads, you’re ready to start selling spreadsheets online.

How to Sell a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet

To upload your first Excel spreadsheet for sale, simply go to Downloads » Add New in your admin panel.

Once you’re in the content editor, add a name for your Excel spreadsheet in the ‘Enter Download Name Here’ field.

This name will be shown on the product’s page, so be sure to use one that describes exactly what your spreadsheet does.

Next, type in the description that will appear on the product’s page.

Many online stores use product categories and tags, too. These can help shoppers find the products they’re looking for.

You can create tags and categories for your spreadsheets using the ‘Add New Download Tag’ and ‘Add New Download Category’ options.

After that, scroll to the ‘Download Prices’ section.

Then simply enter the price they’ll pay to download the spreadsheet.

Next, you have to attach a ‘Download Image’ to the spreadsheet. This will appear as a featured image on the product page. You can easily create a product image using free design tools such as Canva.

Scroll down to the ‘Download Image’ section in the sidebar and just click on ‘Download Image.’ Then, simply upload any image you want.

After that, you can upload your spreadsheet. Simply scroll down to the ‘Download files’ section and add a suitable name in the ‘File Name’ field.

Then click on the link button in the ‘File URL’ field.

This will launch the WordPress media library.

From here, you can simply upload the Excel spreadsheet from the computer.

Once you’ve uploaded the Excel spreadsheet, simply click on the ‘Publish’ button. Now your product is on sale on your site.

Setting Up Google Sheets For Sale By Placing Link in File URL

Selling Google Sheets on WordPress is a slightly different process. Since Google Sheets only run in a web browser, you cannot sell a downloadable Google Sheets file. All you get is a link.

To sell Google Sheets, you need to create a ‘copy link’ for the spreadsheet that you plan on selling. This copy link allows you to share a copy of your spreadsheet with the customers upon purchase.

To create this link, simply go to the Google spreadsheet that you plan on selling and click the ‘Share’ button.

Once you’ve clicked on the ‘Share’ button, a popup will appear.

Now simply click on ‘Anyone with the link’ option in the ‘General Access’ section.

Next, select the ‘Editor’ option from the dropdown menu on the right in the ‘General Access’ section.

After that, simply click on the ‘Copy Link’ button.

After you’ve copied the link, go to the ‘Download Files’ section in Easy Digital Downloads.

Then just paste the link in the ‘File URL’ field.

After pasting the link, remove the edit?usp=sharing section from your link.

You will need to add copy in its place.

Now that you’ve added your Google Sheet’s copy URL, simply click on the ‘Publish’ button.

That’s it! Your spreadsheet will immediately be for sale to customers.

Setting Up Google Sheets For Sale Using Certificate of Download

Another easy way to sell Google Sheets is by creating a certificate of download.

All you have to do is create a Word document and paste the Google Sheet ‘copy link’ into the document.

After pasting the link, remove the edit?usp=sharing section from your link and simply add copy it in its place. Be sure to enable the URL as a hyperlink so that it is clickable.

Now, as you can see in the image above, the copy link looks a bit ugly. To make your certificate of download look more professional, you can use a link-cloaker like Pretty Links.

With this plugin, you can make your links look professional and can also track the number of clicks the links in your certificates get.

Next, simply save the document. We recommend saving it as a PDF.

After that, just head back to the ‘Download Files’ section in EDD and upload the certificate file. Then, simply click on the ‘Publish’ button.

With this method, customers will download the certificate after the purchase. They can then click the link provided in the purchase certificate to access the Google spreadsheet they just bought.

Step 5. Customizing Your Digital Download Emails

Every time someone buys a spreadsheet from your website, Easy Digital Downloads will send an email to that person.

This email will have a link that the customer can use to download the Excel or Google spreadsheet they just purchased.

You may want to customize this email by adding your own text and branding.

To do this, go to Downloads » Settings and click on the ‘Email’ tab. Then, make sure that the ‘General’ tab is selected.

You might want to start by adding a logo to your purchase receipt emails.

This logo will appear right at the top of the email and will help customers identify who the email is from.

Simply click on the ‘Upload File’ button and upload an image or choose one from the WordPress media library.

Additionally, you create more personalized emails, you can use dynamic text in your emails as well.

You can find the list of these variables at the bottom of the tab, and you can paste them into your emails to customize them to your individual customers.

When you’re happy with your purchase email receipts, simply scroll down and click on the ‘Save Changes’ button.

Bonus Tools to Sell More Excel and Google Spreadsheets

Now that you’ve successfully added Google and Excel spreadsheets to your website, your next step is to convince the visitors to buy your downloads.

Here are some of our top picks for plugins that can help you sell more Excel and Google spreadsheets.

• All in One SEO is the best SEO plugin for WordPress that can help you optimize your site to get more traffic from search engines.

• MonsterInsights is the best analytics solution for WordPress. It helps you see where your visitors are coming from and what they do on your website. You can optimize your business strategy based on real data.

• OptinMonster is the conversion optimization software on the market. You can use it to create optin forms to grow your email list and convert visitors into paying customers. It can also reduce shopping cart abandonment.

• PushEngage is the best push notification software for WordPress. It allows you to send personalized web push notifications to let your customers. 

We hope this article helped you learn how to sell excel and Google spreadsheets online. You may also want out check out our guide on best email marketing services, and see these easy ways to drive traffic to your website.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Sell Excel or Google Spreadsheets in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

December 07, 2022 at 04:54PM