Add Pagination Before Loop On Posts Page When Using Static Front Page

This solution enables you to use a front-page.php file as your front page and a page_blog.php file as your posts page to display a loop of posts.

On top of this, the code also displays a pagination before the loop on our posts page as well as after the loop as you can see in the following screen shot:

Here’s the Reading Settings which show 2 pages selected:

You simply create 2 new pages:

1 for your front page
And 1 for your posts page.

Then on each page, select the template to use for that specific page from the drop down menu under the Page Attributes meta box.

Front Page Template

Here’s the Edit Page screen for the Front Page Template where the file is named front-page.php