How Do I Fix My WordPress Blog Page?

I had a client who recently had two things wrong with her WordPress blog page. Perhaps this has happened to you? If you need to fix your blog page, read on.

What is the Difference between a Page and a Post–and Why Does That Matter?

WordPress began as a blogging platform. All WordPress blog posts are listed on a summary page, assuming you told WordPress which page to use (see the next section). Posts are listed in decending date order, meaning that the most recently published blog article will appear first (though this sort order can be overridden). Furthermore, posts can be filtered (i.e., searched for) by category or tag, with the results showing on a page with the category or tag name on top. Not so for pages.

In some contexts, everything is a post to WordPress, but a page is a special kind of post meant for static, rarely-changing articles. A page can contain blog posts, but it will not be among the posts included in such a list.

Pages do not include all the post features. By default, pages do not have a comment area, nor do pages have the option to assign a category and tags, unlike posts. (Although site settings can be changed to include these, there is rarely any reason to do so.) Pages may be added automatically to your main menu (depending on your menu settings), while blog posts are not.

No WordPress Blog Entries?

If you have no entries on your WordPress blog page, but the page still exists, the cause is most likely due to one of two possibilities: either 1) your home page is set to display a static (rather than blog) page and you have not told WordPress what page to use for blog entries instead, or 2) you did not insert a block or short code inside your blog page that would tell WordPress to insert blog entries right there. Either way, you have two options for fixing it.

Option 1: Fix an Empty WordPress Blog Page by Changing a WordPress setting.

If you want to add content to your blog page in addition to just the blog summaries, use Option 2, below, instead.

To define your blog page at the WordPress settings level:

1. From the WordPress dashboard, click Appearance > Customize.

   
2. Scroll down and click on “Homepage Settings.”

   
3. Click the drop-down box below “Posts page.”

   
4. Click on the page you want for displaying your blog posts.

   
5. Don’t forget to click “Publish” at the top of the page to save your change.

   

Option 2: Insert a Query Loop inside the Blog Page

Use this option if you want to add your own content above and/or below the listing of blog summaries. By using a Query Loop block, you can have the blog summaries appear at any point on the page, and you can choose how many blog entries appear there.

Insert the Query Loop in the same way you insert any other block inside the editor. Detailed instructions are on the Query Loop Block page at WordPress.org.

WordPress added the Query Loop block to the WordPress core in 2021 (eliminating the necessity of various plugins or custom code that did the same thing, including the WordPress.com Editing Toolkit).

When Some Blog Entries Are Missing

By default, WordPress has two places on the admin menu to post articles: “Pages” and “Posts.” Only posts will display on your blog page. If one of your posts is missing, look for it under “Pages” in the WordPress admin menu.

If you created a page when you meant to create a post, you are far from alone. WordPress terminology is a bit confusing regarding pages and posts. Hopefully the beginning of this article removed this confusion.

How to Move a Page to a Post (or vice-versa)

While you could copy and past from the original page to a new post (or vice-versa), it would be much easier if you could just change the type of article directly. Actually, you can–if you want to change data in the WordPress database. Easier–and less error-prone–is to use a plugin, Post Type Switcher. (The plugin page at WordPress.org has installation instructions.)

With the Post Type Switcher plugin installed, all you have to do is:

1. Click Pages on the WordPress admin menu (or click Posts if you want to change a post to a page).

   
2. Hover your mouse over the page you want and when the submenu appears, click “Edit.”
3. Clear the gear icon, which will open page and block settings. Click on the “Page” tab. (See image below.)
4. Scroll down the page and click the “Page” link next to “Post Type”. (See the orange arrow I drew on the image. In this context, a “page” is a type of “post”.)

   
5. Click the “Post” radio button in the submenu that appears. (The third choice, “Help”, it not found on most WordPress websites as it was custom coded.)

   
6. Confirm that you do indeed intend to change the post type from page to post by clicking the “OK button in the dialog box that appears at the top of the screen.

   

Still Having Trouble?

I would be happy to look into your problem. Just contact me or submit a work request and I will get back to you as soon as I can (generally 24 hours or less). If I have never worked on your website before, I will probably need you to give me login access before I can analyze the problem thoroughly.

Notes: Although I may decide to look into your problem for free if I have a little spare time, in most cases there will be a charge to fix it. I am happy to provide an estimate. More complex problems may require significant time to analyze the source of the problem, in which case I will also need to charge for analysis time.