What do I mean by “static”?

Simply that it doesn’t change. Without a static front page your site’s home page will change each time you add a blog post. This might be what you want, and if so, don’t bother with this step.

BUT, if you want to get the most SEO bang for your money, you really should consider using a static front page, optimized for your site’s niche. You can control how your site is listed in the Search Engines and you can control how your site looks by creating a unique front page.

So, how do you do that?

1. Login to your wp-admin Dashboard.
2. Click on Pages / Add New
3. Paste or type your content in the box provided and give it a keyword-rich title (based on your site’s niche).
4. Scroll Down and, on the right you will see a block with “Include this page in user menus. Un-tic that box. (this assumes you have installed the Exclude Pages plugin)
5. Publish.
6. Now Scroll down and in the left sidebar you will see Settings.
7. Click on Settings / Reading.  At the top of this page you will see “Reading Settings” and below that you will see the option to choose a front page display.
8. Tic the box that says “A Static Page”.
9. In the drop-down box, choose the page you just created. go to bottom and click “Save Changes.”

Congratulate yourself! You have just created a static front page.

To put it simply, you install it just as you would if you are manually installing a normal wordpress blog. But, just in case you don’t know how to do that, follow these directions:

1. Download and unzip the current version of WPMage.zip
2. Create a database for WPMage on your web server, as well as a MySQL user who has all privileges for accessing and modifying it. Make sure you keep a record of the db name and password as you will need it during the install.
3. Upload the WPmage files to the desired location on your web server:

• If you want to integrate WPMage into the root of your domain (e.g. http://example.com/), move or upload all contents of the unzipped WPMage directory (but excluding the directory itself) into the root directory of your web server.

• If you want to have your WPMage installation in its own subdirectory on your web site (e.g. http://example.com/blog/), rename the directory (wpMage) to the name you’d like the blog’s directory to have and move or upload it to your web server. For example if you want the WPMAge installation in a directory called “blog”, you should rename the directory called “wpmage” to “blog” and upload it to the root directory of your web server.

4. Run the WordPress installation script by accessing wp-admin/install.php in your favorite web browser.*

• If you installed WPMage in the root directory, you should visit: http://example.com/wp-admin/install.php

• If you installed WPMage in its own subdirectory called blog, for example, you should visit: http://example.com/blog/wp-admin/install.php

* You will need the database username and password here.

5. The WPMage and an auto-installer and you can actually completely create your blog at this time. You will need to know your WPMage license number and license email address. And, you will need a list of Keywords, so have those handy before starting to create your site. You will also need to know your Affiliate ID information at this point. Complete the information and generate your blog!

6. Login to your sites.com/wp-admin and make sure everything installed correctly.

Feel free to post your questions comments below .