WordPress gives you two very different ways to create your website content – posts and pages.
Once you have been handed the keys to your shiny new WordPress website, you need to learn how to add, edit and manage your website content. However, the two content types look nearly identical and it can all quickly become very confusing right?
Well this article will explain the similarities and differences. By the time we are finished with this WordPress tutorial, you will be able to identify, add and edit any WordPress content with confidence, using either a WordPress Post or WordPress page
What is a WordPress Post?
When founded 15 years ago, WordPress was introduced as a blogging platform, with each single blog entry titled as a WordPress Post. A WordPress Post usually consists of a text editor, where you can add text, make simple styling changes along with ability to add visual media such as images. Think a blank notepad page.
Each post is treated as a blog entry which will feed through in reverse chronological order on the blog homepage or the page you assign posts to. (You can change this in Settings > Reading).
You can control how many posts are displayed on your blog page at one time, and you can also filter your posts based on categories and tags, but you will read more on this in ‘When to use a WordPress Post’.
Posts can also be found in the archives, categories, recent posts and other widgets within your website but are typically displayed in your blog feed, so if you ever delete a WordPress post, it’s likely it will still be crawled by search engines.
What Is A WordPress Page?
From first glance, a ‘WordPress Page’ will appear to be almost identical to a ‘WordPress Post’, which leads to the confusion, but when you start to explore your WordPress website, and investigate how they are structured, it will become obvious that they are very different.
A ‘WordPress Page’ will typically consist of much more technical functionality compared to a WordPress Post, you can also create page templates, where these layouts can be saved and applied to further, individual pages to provide a consistent, professional look.
Moving onto the differences, pages are static and are not listed by date. Pages cannot be assigned categories or tags, so you will never see a page mixed into a news feed. The only exception where you will possibly see this is if you have created a custom menu, or if you have created a widget containing a list of posts and pages.
When to use a WordPress Post?
WordPress Posts are perfect for any regular content feed. If you have a WordPress website that contains regular, up to date blogs, news, events or any content that is time related, these are types of content that you will choose to create as a WordPress Post.
WordPress Posts are also an excellent choice for any content that will have lots of individual content entries that will need to be organized and structured – using categories and tags.
Let’s create an example, let’s say you have a food website. If you create regular WordPress content based on current events, you may want to create a post then filter based on cuisine, so creating categories such as recipes, healthy food and so on… From here, you may also want to create sub-categories or create tags if your content has any overlap. For example, you may have a may write a healthy food blog which could be multiple cuisines such as Chinese and Thai food.
When to use a WordPress Page?
WordPress Pages work best when creating your most important content. This is the primary content that will find on your homepage or linked from the main menu on your website that will be regularly accessed.
Additionally, as a Cheshire Web Agency, we would advise to use a page when your content requires a layout, or some added functionality. With themes, you can create a Page template, so the layout will remain consistent throughout pages. When choosing a ‘Post’, you have access to some functionality such as adding media, but limited plugin functionality.
As highlighted in ‘When to use a WordPress Post’, you can also structure pages by grouping pages together. You can assign a ‘Page’ to a ‘Parent’ page under the page attribute settings, then can assign other pages under the parent page so will appear as a sub-menu item within your main website menu.
WordPress Page & WordPress Post Tutorial Learnings
Putting the pieces together, you should now have a much better understanding and spot the difference between ‘WordPress Pages’ and ‘WordPress Posts’. Next time you need to add, edit or manage some content, think through your learnings and you should be able to identify you need a WordPress Page or a WordPress Post instantly.
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