Archives in the free theme

An archive is a page with a list of posts that WordPress builds by itself: a category, a tag, an author, a date, or search results.

That has a consequence worth stating early. You did not create these pages and you will not find them in Pages. They exist on their own, and they are configured somewhere else entirely.

#Every archive has two layers

People mix these up constantly, so it is worth being precise.

The page header is the top of the page: the title, the description under it, breadcrumbs, and a background image.

The listing is everything below: the post cards themselves.

They are configured separately. "I cannot change the archive title in the listing settings" is looking in the wrong layer.

#Where the header text comes from

The title and description come from the object itself, meaning the category description, the tag description, or the author profile. They are not typed into a settings panel. See Category fields, Tag fields, and Author profile fields.

At the free level, the header is configured in the Customizer, in the archive section: whether it shows, how it is aligned, and whether it carries breadcrumbs and a background. The complete set, including overrides on one specific archive, is in Advanced archives.

#What the free level does

Everything is in the Customizer and the structure is fixed: a list of posts, optionally a featured post above it, pagination below, and a sidebar beside it.

Precisely what you get: a card style with a few of its parameters, the featured post above the list, the pagination type, and a sidebar on the left, on the right, or off.

The limit, said plainly: there are fewer card styles here and fewer settings on each than at the advanced level. This is not a version cut down for the sake of cutting; it is the level the theme gives away.

See Basic settings for where these controls live.

#When this is enough

Enough: a blog with one grid across every archive, where launching quickly matters more than variation.

Not enough: different archives that should look different, custom zones under the listing, more card types, or finer control.

Three ways forward, each with its own page: Advanced archives, block patterns, and Elementor templates.

Last updated 22 Sep 2026