Genesis Theme Framework Settings Guide

Many professional bloggers choose to build their websites & blogs on a WordPress design framework like Genesis.

Not sure what a theme framework is?

Learn why Genesis is the Foundation of any Smart WordPress Design.

Once you’ve installed the Genesis theme framework, you’ll need to configure the settings.

If you’re new to Genesis, i’ll show you how i setup Genesis and why i do it this way.

Installing Child Theme On Genesis

Firstly, you’d want to choose and install a child theme after you’ve installed Genesis.

Installing a child theme is the same as installing a parent theme or framework (Genesis).

Genesis Theme Settings

Once you’ve installed the Genesis theme framework and a StudioPress child theme, you can configure the settings.

Information

• Check the Enable Automattic Updates box
• Check the Notify box and add your email address

Color Style

This box is displayed if you install a child theme which adds color choices.

Custom Feeds

If you’ve setup Feedburner to manage your RSS feed, add your Feedburner url here, otherwise skip this step.

Default Layout

Choose the default post layout here. You can change it on a per posts basis on each Edit Post screen.

Generally, the content sidebar option is the most popular however you may want to use content only which removes the sidebar from all posts.

Navigation Settings

You’ll want to display at least one navigation menu so check the Primary Navigation Menu box.

Learn more about navigation menu’s in WordPress.

Enable extras on right side to display your RSS links, search form or Twitter follow link in your Primary nav menu.

Add a secondary nav menu if needed which you can include below your Primary menu. You can also display a menu before/after your header using hooks and filters. (Advanced).

You can also display different nav menus on different pages & posts on your site.

Breadcrumbs

Here’s an example of what breadcrumbs are and look like once displayed.

Genesis enables you to display these navigation links in different locations on your site.

Comments and Trackbacks

All blogs should enable comments as its a great way to receive feedback and engage with your readers.

Once you’ve enabled comments, make sure you configure your discussion settings so you also control spam comments.

Learn more about Pingbacks & Trackbacks.

Content Archives

Your blog page, regardless of whether you’re using your home page or a custom posts page, will display a list of all your posts.

If you’ve created a custom home page, you’ll need to create a blog page to display a list of your posts.

The first setting allows you to display a custom excerpt or your posts content which you can manually limit by the amount of characters.

Once you’ve created and added a featured image for each post, you can select which size to display next to your posts content on your archives pages (example: blog page or home page).

Each archive page also includes pagination which enables your readers to navigate through multiple pages of archives containing a list of your posts.

You can also add additional image sizes to your StudioPress child theme files which will create more image sizes to choose from included in the drop down menu fro display on your content archives pages.

Blog Page

Be default, Genesis and StudioPress themes display a list of your most recent posts on your home page. The Blog Page settings allow you to determine how many posts you want to display.

If you’ve created a custom blog or posts page, these settings will effect this archives page for all your posts.

You can choose to display posts assigned to All Categories or from one category only.

Another option is to find your Category I.D and Exclude the posts assigned to those categories from being displayed on your blog page.

Header and Footer Scripts

Once you’ve setup Google Analytics, this is a good place to paste in your tracking code.

You can also add other javascripts which need to execute before the closing head </head> tag, in the first box. Example: Facebook applications.

If you need to execute other scripts for php code or display HTML or JS, the Genesis simple hooks plugin provides an excellent way to do this. (Advanced)

Download Free Guide – Genesis for Beginners

Other Important Settings

Before you start blogging, there’s some other settings which you should configure first.