Understand what owns each part of a POM site
Most confusing POM Theme edits are made in a screen that can influence the page, but does not own the decision being changed. Before editing, identify whether the source is WordPress content, a page composition, a shared theme setting, a content model, or a dynamic template.
The five ownership layers
1. WordPress content
WordPress owns the content record: its title, publication state, author, featured image, terms, body content, and media. WooCommerce similarly owns product data such as price, stock, variations, and order state.
Edit the record when the information itself is wrong. Changing a template will not correct an incorrect product price or post title.
2. The POM Page Builder
The Page Builder owns the composition stored for one supported post or page: rows, columns, components, and their responsive settings. The editor exposes Page Builder, Backend Editor, Frontend Editor, and Text Editor modes when the current role and post type have access.
Use it when one page needs a different section, image, call to action, or arrangement. Do not repeat a global brand decision across many builder elements.
3. POM Theme settings
Settings → POM Theme owns reusable site decisions. The settings application groups them into Design system, Site layout, Templates, Content model, E-Commerce, Integrations, Forms, Advanced, Tools, and License.
Use these settings when the same decision should apply across the site: a palette color, button style, header structure, footer behavior, archive layout, integration, or performance option.
Some setting groups are optional. Enabling and saving one can reveal its fields or activate the related runtime feature. Treat that enable state as part of the configuration, not as a decorative checkbox.
4. POM content models
The Content model area can define additional post types, taxonomies, custom fields, saved queries, faceted-search contexts, and permission rules.
Use it to describe what the site stores and how records relate. Decide this structure before entering a large volume of content, because changing slugs or relationships later can affect editors, URLs, queries, and templates.
5. Dynamic templates
The Templates area controls repeated presentation for archives, feeds, single records, search results, the blog, author pages, and eligible custom post types. POM HTML templates can render current values through supported merge tags.
Use a template when many records share one presentation. Edit the content record when only one record's value is wrong.
Work from broadest ownership to narrowest
When several layers affect the same page, use this order:
- Confirm the WordPress or WooCommerce data is correct.
- Confirm the content model exposes the intended fields and relationships.
- Confirm the correct archive, feed, or single template is selected.
- Confirm global design and layout settings.
- Confirm the individual page or component configuration.
- Confirm optional integrations and caches only after the source configuration is correct.
This order prevents a local override from hiding a global mistake.
Examples
| Desired change | Edit here |
|---|---|
| Correct one service title | The service content record |
| Add a section to one landing page | POM Page Builder |
| Change the main button treatment everywhere | Settings → POM Theme → Design system → Buttons |
| Change the mobile navigation structure | Settings → POM Theme → Site layout → Mobile navigation |
| Add a field shared by every service | Settings → POM Theme → Content model → Custom fields |
| Change every service card in a listing | The assigned feed template |
| Change product stock | The WooCommerce product |
| Change the product archive layout | Settings → POM Theme → E-Commerce → Storefront → Product archives |
Inheritance and overrides
POM Theme supplies global defaults for shared site behavior. Individual pages and posts can expose selected settings that override parts of the site frame or page output. A reusable block can also be selected globally and replaced where an explicit content-level override exists.
When a page does not match the global setting:
- Check the current content object's editor settings.
- Check its template assignment.
- Check the relevant global POM Theme setting.
- Check whether the feature is enabled and saved.
- Regenerate or clear the appropriate output cache only after the intended value is confirmed.
Choose the next guide
- For one page, continue with Build pages with POM.
- For shared visual choices, use Create a consistent design system.
- For the persistent site frame, use Configure the site layout.
- For data structure, use Build structured content.
- For repeated output, use Create dynamic templates.