I have been guilty of using these terms interchangeably, as I think have many of us. As a public service (and a public mea culpa), here is the difference for these types of pages, in the WordPress world:
- Landing Page – this is mostly seen if your site’s goal is conversions (sales) or leads. You can have a landing page that visitors are funneled to after they have “met” you on your home page or front page.
- The Home Page or Front Page is like the front door to your house. It’s where you welcome your visitor, and they learn about you (and decide if your site is worth their time to stay and look around)
The difference between a Home page vs a Front (or Splash) page is uniquely a WordPress thingie, though. It comes down to the hierarchy of the templates of your theme. Per the WordPress Codex (emphasis mine):
On the site front page, WordPress will always use the front-page.php template file, if it exists. If front-page.php does not exist, WordPress will determine which template file to use, depending on the user configuration of ‘Settings > Reading ->Front page displays’, as follows:
- A static page: WordPress uses the Static Page template hierarchy: Custom Page Template, page-{id}.php, page-{slug}.php, page.php, index.php
- Your latest posts: WordPress uses the Blog Posts Index template hierarchy: home.php, index.php
To recap, landing pages is a term for marketing/sales/lead generation page. Front page is the first, “home” page you come to on a brochure or static site, as long as the WordPress theme contains that template.
Leave a Reply