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Why do the widgets not appear on the front page?

MH Magazine Demo 4
MH Magazine – Modern News / Magazine WordPress Theme

One of the most frequently asked questions we get is when users have activated their WordPress theme, have placed some widgets on their site and then are wondering, why the widgets don't appear on the front page. In case you are experiencing this issue, don't worry, your theme is NOT broken. You'll just need to configure your WordPress theme correctly.

How to make the widgets appear on the homepage #

Most WordPress themes by MH Themes have included a fully widgetized Homepage template, but this template is not activated by default. In case you are using our popular MH Magazine WordPress theme for example, the default look of your website after theme activation is a classic blog view. That means the articles on your front page appear as a list in chronological order:

Default Blog Style
Default posts page after theme activation of MH Magazine WordPress theme

Even in case you may already have placed widgets within the particular widget areas in your WordPress dashboard under Appearance => Widgets, the widgets won't appear on your front page, unless you instruct WordPress to display a static front page in combination with the widgetized Homepage page template, as instructed in the theme documentation of MH Magazine.

Create a magazine like front page in WordPress #

If you want to use the widgetized Homepage template for your front page and place widgets in the several available widget locations, you'll first need to create and set a static front page in WordPress and then assign the widgetized Homepage page template to your static front page.

Magazine Style
Widgetized static front page of MH Magazine built with custom widgets

As soon as you've configured your widgetized static front page correctly, the default blog view on the front page of your website will be replaced by your static front page and the widgets that you have placed in the specific widget areas of the Homepage template will appear on your front page as expected. After you've completed this essential step, you can proceed with the theme configuration as stated in the theme documentation of your particular WordPress theme.

Theme installation service for WordPress beginners #

In case you're new to WordPress and don't want or can't configure your WordPress theme by yourself, we also offer an installation service where our support staff will install and configure the WordPress theme for you to replicate the layout of the particular theme demo. Here you can find more information: Theme installation service.

Need more information? #

You can find more information about creating a static front page in WordPress, using widgets in WordPress and about configuring your WordPress theme correctly in these articles and tutorials:

The information in this article has also been helpful for users with the following questions:

  • How to add widgets to the homepage?
  • Slider is not appearing on homepage
  • Slider widget and spotlight widget not appearing
  • Placing widgets on the homepage template
  • Slider does not work
  • Why do the widgets not show on the front page?
Updated on 29. November 2023

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