You open a category page, it does not look like the demo, and it is not obvious where that is changed: the Customizer, Theme Options, Elementor or the block editor. All four answers are correct, for different sites.
This page is a router. It sorts out which route is yours and then hands you to the reference for it.
#What an archive is
A page listing posts that WordPress assembles itself: a category, a tag, an author, a date, search results. You do not create these pages; WordPress produces them from your content.
One thing worth separating immediately, because it is regularly confused: the archive header, meaning the title, description and image at the top, is a different layer from the list of posts underneath it. They are configured in different places.
#Four routes, simplest first
- Route A: the free theme alone
Without the Pro plugin, archives are configured in the Customizer: layout, card, number of columns, header. The honest limit: no custom listings, no zones, no per term settings.
- Route B: Theme Options
The classic route for most sites. One set of settings drives every archive at once, with no pages to assemble by hand. This is the recommended starting point, because it changes quickly and applies everywhere.
- Route C: block patterns
When an archive should differ from the rest and the site lives in the block editor.
- Route D: an Elementor template
The most freedom and the most work.
Take the highest route that solves your problem.
Each step down gives you more freedom and more places you will have to maintain by hand, so dropping a level should be a decision rather than a habit.
#The part that does not depend on your route
The post listing is the same in all four. That is worth knowing because it means learning the listing settings once covers Theme Options, the block and the Elementor widget.
What to read next about listings: the card types, where each group of settings lives, the pagination modes, and where listings can be used.
Not every listing setting is available in every place, and that is not a bug.
Knowing it in advance saves a support ticket, because the missing control is usually one that has nothing to attach to in that particular surface.
#Practical advice
The archive header is configured separately from the list. The category description comes from the term itself, so a category with no description shows no description, however the header is configured.
An empty category renders an empty archive. That is correct behavior, and it looks like a broken page, which is why it is worth checking your terms actually have posts before debugging the layout.
Pagination is a decision rather than a default: numbered pages, load more, or infinite scroll each suit a different kind of reading.
#Common questions
Can different categories look different?
Per term settings are a Pro capability, so on the free edition every archive shares one configuration.
I changed the archive settings and one category ignored them
That category has its own local setting, which beats the global one, and that is the design rather than a fault.
Which route should I start with?
Theme Options if you have Pro, because it covers most sites without building anything by hand.
Can I switch routes later?
Yes, and the more specific route wins while it exists, so an Elementor archive template overrides the settings based configuration until you remove it.
My archive looks nothing like the demo
Check which route the demo used, because a demo built on an Elementor archive template cannot be reproduced with Theme Options settings, and the reverse is equally true.
#Still stuck
Open a support ticket with a link to the archive and which of the four routes you are using.
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