When developing a theme wordpress grant us to use front-page and home page templates, so what is the major difference between these two templates as they seems like identical. I also want to know what will be the purpose of index.php file if we have front-page.php or home.php to work like our main index file, I mean server accepts the index file to index as main page or home page so if we name the file front-page or home how it will possible for site indexing.
In short:
-
index.php
is a fallback template only, in case no appropriate template was found -
home.php
is used for the blog (a listing of recent posts) -
front-page.php
is used for the landing-page
The universal index.php
template
The index.php
template file is a fallback template. It is used as a last resort when no other more appropriate template is available. For example, if you don’t have a front-page.php
nor a home.php
then index.php
will be used. This is also true for missing archive.php
or single.php
and so on.
Regarding front-page.php
VS home.php
Now the difference between front-page.php
and home.php
templates is that the front-page.php
is used, as its name suggests, as the main front-page of the site, while home.php
is intended to be the home of the Blog section.
What template will be used for my site’s landing-page?
The front-page.php
template, if present, will be used for the site’s main front page (e.g. http://www.example.com/
). If not present, then home.php
will be used instead. If both the front-page.php
and home.php
template files are missing then the index.php
fallback template will be used.
What template will be used for my blog page?
WordPress allows you to have a “Blog” page (which will list recent posts) on a different page than the landing-page (e.g. http://www.example.com/blog/
). So if this is the case on your site, then the Blog page will always use the home.php
template. If home.php
doesn’t exist then the index.php
fallback template will be used.
How to configure the landing-page and blog page?
To configure what content to show on your front page, go to the WordPress Admin, under Tools > Reading, there you can configure the “Front page displays” to show a static page, or your latest posts.
In the case you choose to display a static page on the front page, then you also have the possibility to set which page to use as a placeholder for the Blog page (which will use the home.php
template):
More technical details are available in the WordPress Codex.