Joomla: I wrote an article, but it doesn’t show on the website

You wrote an article, the status is “Published”, you saved it. It is nowhere to be seen on the website.

Everything is fine. Joomla simply works differently from what you expect.

The difference from WordPress

In WordPress: you publish an article → it is on the website straight away, in the blog.

In Joomla: you publish an article → it exists in the database, but isn’t shown anywhere until you give it a place.

Joomla separates the content from where it appears. That is confusing at first, but it makes sense once a website gets more complex.

How an article becomes visible

Two ways:

1. A menu item — for pages like “About us” or “Contact”.

2. A module — for lists like “Latest articles” in a sidebar.

A menu item, step by step

1. Menus → Main Menu → Add New Menu Item
2. Enter a title — that is what shows in the menu
3. Next to Menu Item Type, click Select
4. Choose Articles → Single Article
5. Choose your article
6. Save

Now it has its own place on the website.

For a blog with many articles

If you want a page that shows all the articles from one category:

The same steps, but for the type choose Articles → Category Blog, and then the category.

Then every new article in that category appears automatically — you don’t need a menu item for each one.

The practical tip

Set up the structure once: categories with matching menu items of the “Category Blog” type.

After that, writing works just like in WordPress — you pick a category and the article appears by itself.

The effort is only the first time, during setup.

If it still doesn’t show

Check three things:

• The article’s status is Published, not “Archived” or “Trashed”
• The “Start Publishing” date isn’t in the future
• The access level is Public, not “Registered”