You have a website, and now you want to add a blog on your website to start blogging. That’s a great step, —congratulations!
Blogging will empower your website with a voice, and you’ll take your relationship with your visitors to a next level. No matter if it’s for personal or business purpose, you’ll get countless benefits from blogging.
To start blogging on your website, all you need is to add a ‘blog page’ (or ‘blog section’) in your website to display your posts.
WordPress has a built-in blog
Adding a blog to your website is extremely easy with WordPress. This is mainly because WordPress has a built-in blog functionality as it started originally as a blogging platform.
WordPress has all the excellent blogging capabilities and none others can compare to the power and simplicity of a WordPress blog. No matter if you’re a blogger or you want to add updates on your site about your business, WordPress is today’s the best blogging platform.
When you add a new post to your website, WordPress automatically makes all the necessary updates in your entire website. You get all the links ready to your new post in additional pages like archives, categories and tags in your website.
How to add a Blog in WordPress
To add a blog for your site in WordPress, you need to:
- create a blank page,
- assign it as your Posts page.
Your ‘Posts page’ is your main Blog page, which will automatically display your posts in reverse chronological order. It’ll also automatically be linked to the ‘Blog’ in your main menu if your theme allows.
If you would like to make your Posts page your Homepage, it’s also easy: Simply assign your Homepage as your Posts page.
You can actually add your Posts page anywhere you like in your website. WordPress gives you all the options to set your blogging platform wherever you want.
In this post, I’ll first show you how to create a WordPress page as your Posts page, as opposed to using the Homepage as the Posts page. We’ll then see how to add the Posts page you just created to the Navigation Menu in your website.
Steps to adding a Posts page to a website
As you already have an existing website and you want to add a blog, you’ll need a page for your blog to live. You can call it a ‘Posts page’ or ‘Blog page’.
How to add Blog to a website:
- Create a blank page named ‘Blog’,
- Assign the page you just created as your Posts page.
- Add your Posts page (Blog) to the Navigation Menu in your website.
These are also what you’re going to learn with this tutorial.
Let’s see these steps in detail now.
1. Creating a Posts page
To start blogging on your website, you need to create a Posts page first. Please, remember that a Posts page is a ‘page’ that’s different than a post, and it displays your posts in reverse chronological order.
To add a Posts page to your website, first, you need to create a blank page to display your posts.
How to create a Posts page:
- Log into your WordPress Dashboard.
- Go to Pages > Add New.
- Name your page as ‘Blog’ for easy identification. Leave it blank.
- Then publish your page.
Step 1 ‒ Add a new page
After logging, choose Pages in the WordPress Dashboard menu, then click the Add New button.
Pages > Add New.
This new page is your WordPress Posts page where your posts will be displayed as your Blog. You will be able to make a choice as to whether your blog posts should display there in full text or in summary form. (I’ll show how to do it below.)
Step 2 ‒ Name your page
Enter a title for your new page in the heading box at the top of the page. As this will be the main page for your blog to live, give the name ‘Blog‘ for this new page for easy identification. This automatically sets the page slug to /blog.
Leave the text box below heading box blank in this page. You don’t need to add any text to this page because WordPress will display your posts in this page after you assign it as your Posts page. However, if your theme allows, you can add some content or give some design to this page.
Remember, that page will act as a feed for your posts —different form any other static read pages.
Step 3 ‒ Publish the page
By clicking the publish button, your blank page titled Blog will be saved to your database and published to your WordPress site.
You now have a blank page that redirects to ‘yourdomain.com/blog’.
But how the posts will find there? Don’t worry about it —we’ll tackle that next.
2. Assigning your new Blog page as your Posts page
Now, you need to assign the new page you just created as your Posts page.
How to assign a page as your Posts page:
- Login to your WordPress Dashboard
- Go to Settings > Reading.
- Select ‘static page’ under ‘Your homepage displays’ and,
- Set the homepage to your Homepage you had already.
- Set the posts page to the new page named ‘Blog’.
Step 1 ‒ Open Reading Settings
Hover over Settings in the WordPress Dashboard Menu, and then choose Reading.
Settings > Reading.
The Reading Settings page opens.
Step 2 ‒ Select the Blog page as the Posts page
With this step you’re going to determine where your blog feed will appear.
In ‘Your homepage displays’ section at the top, ‘A static page’ option should be selected.
Now, select the page you just created from the Posts page drop-down list.
In the ‘Blog pages show at most’ section below, specify the number of posts you want to display on your Posts page at any time.
Choose also here whether you want your each article (post) in your Posts page show full text or in summary form.
Step 3 ‒ Save changes
Scroll down and click the Save Changes button.
The options you just set are saved, and your blog is now located at http://yourdomain.com/blog (where yourdomain.com is your actual domain name).
You now have a Blog page with the latest post showing.
3. Adding your Blog page to the Navigation Menu
After creating your Blog page, you’ll need to add it to your menu so that your visitors can get to that page.
How to add your Blog page to the Navigaiton Menu:
- Login to your WordPress Dashboard
- Go to Appearance > Menus.
- Select ‘Create Menu’
- Select the ‘Menu Location‘
- Click ‘Save Menu‘
- In the Pages section, choose your Blog page, then click Add to Menu.
- Click ‘Save Menu‘ again.
Step 1 ‒ Go to Menus
Hover over the Appearance Menu in the WordPress Dashboard, and click Menus. The Menus page will open.
Step 2 ‒ Create a Menu
Create a new menu if there isn’t one already created. Do so by adding a Menu Name, then clicking the Create Menu button.
Step 3 ‒ Choose Menu location
Your theme will have defined Locations for the Menus. Select the most appropriate menu location
Step 4 ‒ Save Menu
By clicking the Save Menu button, you’ll create a new menu.
Step 5 – Choose Blog page and add it to Menu
Under the Pages tab on the left side, click the View All link and choose your newly created Blog Page form the list of page(s) you have published on your site. Then click Add to Menu.
After you add a new menu item, the column on the right side of the Menus page populates with your additions.
Step 6 ‒ Save Menu again
Make sure you click the Save Menu button again before leaving the Menus page.
After you complete the steps above, remember to visit your website to make sure that your new Blog Page and menu in action.
You can create as many menus as you need for your website and give a link from them to your Blog.
Assigning your Blog as your Homepage
If you want to assign your Homepage as your Blog (Posts page) in your website, all you need to do is to go to Reading Settings in your WordPress Dashboard, and select the Posts page you created.
To do that ‘A static page’ should be selected in the ‘Your homepage displays’ section at the top.
How to assign your Homepage as your Blog (Posts page) in a website:
- Login to your WordPress Dashboard
- Go to Settings > Reading.
- Set the Homepage to your newly created blank page under ‘Your homepage displays’.
Blog or website with a blog
If you select ‘latest post’ under ‘Your homepage displays’, then your blog feed will be displayed as your Homepage. That’s you won’t have two different pages as your Homepage and a Posts page. There will be one single page displaying your blog feed. And we’ll call it simply as a blog.
But if you’re NOT going to use your Homepage as your Posts page, then you’ll have two different pages, a Homepage and a Posts page. And we’ll call it a website with a blog.
What’s next?
Now that you’ve learned how to add a blog to your website, you’re ready to enter the wonderful world of blogging! Write and publish your first post to spread your message!
If you haven’t already had a site yet, you can launch one with this guide in the easiest and quickest way.
Following the easy steps in this guide, you’ll get your WordPress site up and running in one session with one signup process. It means that your site will come ready for you to add content with no difficulty on your part.
Here is a tip for writing your first blog post:
Rather than just getting straight to the regular blog posts, you can start by introducing yourself, your business, and your purpose of blogging to your readers. Focus on connecting with your audience in your own voice. Actually your first post is a great way to lay the groundwork for what you’ll be blogging about.
Most probably you’ll get the ball rolling after your first post.
Happy blogging!
Please, don’t forget to share this post!
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