Front Page VS Home Page

Use the page that is your opening, front, or main page now to do as you wish for the simple page.

Create a new internal page for your store and the rest of the site then and work from there. When you’re ready to point the main page to this new page just add a menu item or link to it from the existing main page.

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This makes me think of the goofy ‘click here to enter’ site buttons that seemed to proliferate back in the early days and were very, very present on too many Geocities based websites. After typing in a ridiculously long URL containing site name, Geocities dot com, and a slew of keywords I’d lose my patience and leave the site when I’d see that button or link.

You and your client might want to consider that front page as a similar ‘roadblock’ before you bring that site online.

A suggestion you might consider is using a maintenance mode popup screen instead while you build the rest of the site.

I use Itro Popup myself for that as it is very handy later when you no longer need the ‘under construction’ and maintenance mode features.

https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/itro-popup/

You may see a notice about the age and status of this plugin but I’m using it on several sites and it works well or you might search for a similar plugin.

Hope this helps.

Use the page that is your opening, front, or main page now to do as you wish for the simple page.

Create a new internal page for your store and the rest of the site then and work from there. When you’re ready to point the main page to this new page just add a menu item or link to it from the existing main page.

That is my initial plan, I can do that. Altough the secondary page does not show up the widgets and other home page content (because its not a true home page).

The thing is, this particular client has some familiar issues with other relatives, where the others are the owners of a similar business, thus they do not want to make splicit in the website what the contents are. So, they would like to have a 2 page intro. I know, its stupid. They will loose SEO eventually, and the bother for visitors to make an extra click to open who knows what.

But the goal is the same. Keep a front page for the store that is perceived as a home page. Altough the true home page is the first one, landing page with a picture and logo.

Meanwhile I will try to desencourage them of having a site like this. With a maintenance mode, it would be so much easier, I know.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by msdesignfoto.

Here’s a thought, though success depends on your server’s configuration. Try adding a index.html page to the site’s public root. Most servers will use this instead of the WP default index.php for bare domain requests. Then index.html can be the simple start page with its own dedicated CSS.

It can eventually link explicitly to index.php, which invokes WP and WP thinks its home page is the site’s main entry page even though it’s actually index.html.

Untested, but I think it’ll work as your client wants. If I may butt into your business a little, it’s your job as a web professional to disabuse clients of old, outdated ideas they may have in their head. It’s in everyone’s best interest to promote a modern, forward looking concept and not cling to what might have been popular last century ??

Here’s a thought, though success depends on your server’s configuration. Try adding a index.html page to the site’s public root. Most servers will use this instead of the WP default index.php for bare domain requests. Then index.html can be the simple start page with its own dedicated CSS.

It can eventually link explicitly to index.php, which invokes WP and WP thinks its home page is the site’s main entry page even though it’s actually index.html.

Untested, but I think it’ll work as your client wants. If I may butt into your business a little, it’s your job as a web professional to disabuse clients of old, outdated ideas they may have in their head. It’s in everyone’s best interest to promote a modern, forward looking concept and not cling to what might have been popular last century ??

Thanks for the tip, but it didn’t work. I placed a basic html file where I think it is the site root. I have access to my cpanel and php stuff, maybe there is some option there to control that? Or maybe I have placed the file in the wrong folder?

Regarding my clients choice, I know you are right there, but the issue here is a familiar problem. Both sides of the family have the same business, but each their own physical store. While everyone is free to create whatever content they like, our client does not want to, say, start a war with building up an online store that may or may not flaming even more their already on fire relation ship with the other relatives. Hence, the “cover” with the extra home page (wich I think is useless anyway, since anyone can find and know about the online store, regardless of the home page).

But I will have a chat about these technical issues with my partner and see if we can make some sense into the clients’ heads.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by msdesignfoto.

There’s a setting in httpd.conf (DirectoryIndex) that defines what the precedence is for various index.* files. This is not usually accessible from shared hosting plans. In some cases this setting can be redefined in .htccess. In other cases .htaccess overrides are not allowed. It’s worth giving .htaccess a try. Add this near the top of the file:

# give index.html top priority
DirectoryIndex index.html index.htm index.php index.pl index.cgi index.asp index.shtml

Keep a backup copy of the current .htaccess. If the new version results in a 500 server error, a syntax error was introduced, restore the original file to get the server up and running.

“index.*” is a standard naming convention. In fact you can specify any filename you want. You could place crazyclients.html at the head of the list and it’ll be used if it exists, assuming .htaccess overrides are allowed.

While you should try to convince clients of what’s in their best interest, they are allowed to make poor decisions as long as they are fully informed poor decisions. It’s their site after all ??

There’s a setting in httpd.conf (DirectoryIndex) that defines what the precedence is for various index.* files. This is not usually accessible from shared hosting plans. In some cases this setting can be redefined in .htccess. In other cases .htaccess overrides are not allowed. It’s worth giving .htaccess a try. Add this near the top of the file:

# give index.html top priority
DirectoryIndex index.html index.htm index.php index.pl index.cgi index.asp index.shtml

Great. Now I managed to do it with your tips.
It now opens a blank html page and I can try to set the main home page as the store front page for the shop purposes. Meanwhile I will try to convince the client that this is a bad decision and will end up messing around with the SEO (I’m assuming this is true and don’t need to lie anyway).

Thank you!

EDIT:
Didn’t work after all. I was using Google Chrome in private mode to avoid cache issues, but it is not recognizing my index.html as the main opening page. It loads, but when I type in the normal domain name, it goes to the page I set as main initial page in WordPress. Oh well…

• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by msdesignfoto.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by msdesignfoto. Reason: not working after all

So much for that idea. Thanks for indulging in my fantasy. I suppose one solution would be if those front page only resources could somehow be invoked from other pages, either from a function call on a template, or a shortcode in page content. All the while being suppressed on the actual simplistic front page. You might be able to find out how through the support channels dedicated to those resources.

Or convince the client to abandon the scheme ?? A simple home page wouldn’t rank well because it doesn’t convey any useful information. The secondary page will likely rank better, hence few people will first land on the home page from search results.

Ok, I have some news.
Me and my partner talked to the client about this issue, and meanwhile I found an interesting theme that allows us to make a homepage simple, while keeping the original “landing page” layout.

So we now don’t have that extra home page, because I was able to simplify the current home page to keep it clear; when the site is about about to be launched, I fill in the menu. This basic home page has a big store photo across the screen, and has the full menu and logo on top.

Odly, this problem was solved by picking up the right theme, and the client is loving the current shop layout and products display. Now we just need to fine-tune the details, but I guess a few plugins for extra customizing will do the job.

Thanks everyone for your kind inputs!
Cheers