Using next_posts_link() and prev_posts_link() on static front page

If you have a custom query of posts on a static front page in WordPress, adding pagination can be a confusing experience. The answer is fairly simple, if you’ve done it before. Prior to last week, I had not done it before, and I was very lost. Search results were driving me all kinds of places. Fortunately, you’ve landed here.

The issue is that the paged query variable isn’t called paged on the homepage, but rather page. Both next_posts_link() and prev_posts_link() utilize the query variable, and a custom query is looking for the paged variable. To remedy this, you need to alter your query. In my specific case, the template partial could be used on a static front page or on any other page. Because of that, the following checks to see which is appropriate to use:

global $paged;

if ( get_query_var( 'paged' ) ) {
	$paged = get_query_var( 'paged' );
} elseif ( get_query_var( 'page' ) ) {
	$paged = get_query_var( 'page' );
} else {
	$paged = 1;
}

Once the $paged variable has been properly set, both next_posts_link() and prev_posts_link() will work as expected.

I’ll note that paginate_links() works without making the modification I’ve outlined, if that’s the pagination structure you’re looking for. In my case, it was a bit more than I needed.