Example of How To Code a Custom Page Template For Genesis With Widgets

Many Genesis beginners take some time to understand the way page templates are coded in Genesis.

Parent themes like Twenty Fifteen and other default themes are coded differently so it takes a bit of getting used to when you switch to Genesis.

There’s no need to add markup to a custom page template as it already includes the genesis(); tag which outputs the default page markup and hooks.

All you need to do is add your custom code for the widgets and all the hooks and markup are already included in the genesis(); function. If you want to remove any of the default page markup, you can simply by adding remove_action for the default function which prints the markup. You can also use add_action to add more functionality like widgets as you can see in this custom page templates code below.

This tutorial for members includes code which creates a mobile responsive page template with widgets that display before and after the content area like you see in the following screenshot:

Here’s the code for the new page template and your child themes functions file.