If WordPress is showing the wrong homepage, recent posts, or an empty page at your main URL, first check Settings → Reading. The Your homepage displays setting controls whether WordPress uses the posts index or a selected page.
Choose what the homepage should display
Open Settings → Reading. Under Your homepage displays, choose one of these options:
- Your latest posts displays the posts index at the homepage URL.
- A static page displays a specific page as the homepage.
Select A static page if you created a page such as Home, Welcome, or Landing Page for the main site URL. Choose it from the Homepage menu, then click Save Changes.
WordPress explains both configurations in its documentation for the Reading Settings screen.
Visit the main site URL in a new browser tab after saving. Do not test only the page’s original permalink.
Check the WordPress and site addresses
If the correct page appears at its own permalink but not at the domain you expect, open Settings → General and inspect these fields:
- WordPress Address (URL) identifies where the WordPress files are installed.
- Site Address (URL) is the address visitors use to reach the site.
These addresses are normally identical unless WordPress is installed in a separate directory. Compare them with the URL you are testing and review the official General Settings documentation before changing either field.
An incorrect URL can make the site load from another domain or directory. Changing these fields incorrectly can also make the dashboard inaccessible, so record the existing values first and change them only when you have confirmed they are wrong.
Set a separate posts page
When using a static homepage, WordPress can display the blog archive on another page.
Create or select a page such as Blog or News, then assign it under Posts page in Settings → Reading. The Homepage and Posts page must be different pages.
Content entered in the editor for the assigned Posts page normally does not become part of the posts archive. WordPress and the active theme generate that view from the site’s posts and templates.
Leave Posts page unselected if the site does not need a dedicated blog archive.
Check whether the selected page is published
If the correct page is missing from the Homepage menu or the homepage appears empty, go to Pages → All Pages and check its status.
The page should be published rather than saved as a draft, pending review, private, or in the Trash. If several pages have similar names, confirm that you selected the intended one.
Changing the homepage assignment does not delete or move page content. Note the current Reading settings before making changes so you can restore the previous selections if needed.
Inspect the settings with WP-CLI
If the dashboard is unavailable or you need to confirm the stored values, run these read-only wp option get commands from the WordPress installation:
wp option get show_on_front
wp option get page_on_front
wp option get page_for_postsInterpret the values as follows:
show_on_frontset topostsmeans the homepage displays the latest posts.show_on_frontset topagemeans WordPress uses a static homepage.page_on_frontcontains the ID of the selected homepage.page_for_postscontains the ID of the selected posts page.- A page ID of
0means no page is assigned for that option.
To identify an assigned page from its ID, use the documented wp post get command:
wp post get PAGE_ID --field=post_titleReplace PAGE_ID with the value returned by page_on_front or page_for_posts.
Check the page and theme template
If the Reading settings are correct but the homepage has the wrong layout, edit the assigned page and inspect the template shown in the page settings. Change an accidentally assigned blog, archive, or blank template back to the theme’s normal page template.
With a block theme, open Appearance → Editor, then go to Design → Templates and inspect the Front Page template. WordPress uses this template for a static front page when one exists. Its blocks can change the homepage layout without changing the assigned page’s content.
The official Template Editor documentation explains how to find, edit, assign, and reset templates.
Before resetting or substantially editing a template, create a backup or record its current block layout. Template changes can affect every page using that template.