difference between wp posts and pages | Building a Successful Online Business with WordPress

Understanding WordPress Posts vs Pages.

WordPress offers two option about publishing your content online. You either publish your content through the post or pages. It’s better to understand why there are posts and pages before you decide on which one to use for a particular content.

This tutorial outlines the major differences between the posts and the Pages. You will have an understanding of when to use a post or a page.

The focus is the specific ways to use Posts and Pages and what to do with these in separate tutorials.

The video below also reveals a step by step tutorial about how to use both to publish content on your site.

WordPress Posts vs Pages – Understanding The Main Differences

You can publish content online using either the post or preferably, the page.

Your visitors and readers will probably not be bothered about whatever mean you use in publishing content on your site. Nevertheless, it’s crucial that you understand the main differences between these two fundamental building blocks. Your online presence will be more effective when you choose the most appropriate one for the right purpose.

Let’s take a look, then, at what the main differences are, starting with WordPress Posts …

Note: Many of the specific features of Posts and Pages mentioned below are explained in more detail in separate tutorials.

WordPress Posts.

Regular “blog” entries are typically written using posts.

By default, Posts are entries listed by date and typically displayed in reverse chronological order on your blog’s home page, so that the most recent entry shows above the older entries …

Posts display on your blog home page and individual pages. They are marked as “sticky posts” display before other ones (this is explained in more detail in a separate tutorial).

Posts can be referenced in sections of your web site like Archives, Categories, Recent Posts, and several widgets. They are also display in your our WordPress RSS feed, as shown in the example below …

They often display a comments section below the main content, allowing visitors to comment on your posts …

Posts can also be added to categories …

And they can also be referenced using tags …

See the “Related Tutorials” section further below for tutorials on how to use Posts.

WordPress Posts vs Pages – Similarities

Here are some of the main similarities between Pages and Posts:

Pages and Posts both have Titles and Content, and use the same method to insert these (e.g. Title fields, visual editor, text editor, etc….)
They use your WordPress Theme template files to help maintain a consistent look throughout your site.
They allow you to use keyword-template
Both Pages and Posts are viewed as “content pages” by search engines.
Depending on the theme and the plugins you have installed on your site, Pages and Posts both give you control over search engine settings like Title, Meta Description, and Meta Keywords.
Depending on the theme and the plugins you have installed on your site, both can be set to display in your menus and widget areas.

Although very similar in many respects, Pages, however, have several key distinctions that make them different from Posts.

WordPress Pages

They typically live outside of the normal blog chronology and are used to “showcase” content that is less time-sensitive than Posts.

In essence, they are mostly used to present readers with information about you or your site that is unlikely to change, and other common pages found in websites such as:

About Us
Contact Us
Product / Service Pages
Scheduled Events
Copyright
Disclosure
Legal Information
Earnings Disclaimer
Reprint Permissions
Company Information
Privacy Statement
Site Map
Resources
etc …

A Page in WordPress is not listed by date, and do not use tags or categories.

You can use them to organize and manage your content.

For example, you can organize the main topics of your content into “Parent” pages (where each of the main topics gets its own page), and then add subtopics for each of your main topics into “Child” pages (subpages) …

You can add as many “child” pages as you need to organize your content into “topic hierarchies”, as shown in the example below …

They can also be displayed in the sidebar of your site using the Pages widget …

In the example above, a “Pages” widget is used to display links to five main pages and three “nested” subpages.

As well as displaying a page in sidebars using widgets, some WordPress themes also display them in the menu tabs in the header and footer sections of your site…

They are also displayed in your t can also use different Page Templates. These Page Templates can include Template Files, Template Tags and other PHP code that provides unique, complex or sophisticated display features of a page on your site.

For example, here are just some of the sales page templates made available to users of a popular WordPress theme called OptimizePress …

At the simplest level, they should be used for non-blog content. In fact, if you were to remove all Posts from your WordPress site, you would have something that closely resembles your typical “non-blog” website (i.e. a site comprising only of “static” pages.)

What WordPress Pages Are Not

- A Page is not a Post. Pages are not processed by the WordPress Loop, which is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts and to cycle post data (like time, category, etc.) through your blog’s main page. Note, however, that some defaults can be changed through the use of certain plugins.

- They cannot be associated with Categories and cannot be assigned Tags. This means that Pages can only be organized according to a hierarchy where you specify and assign Pages and SubPages, and not from referencing Tags or Categories.

- They are not files. Unlike websites that have static pages made of code, which are then saved as files on your server, Pages are stored in your WordPress database just like Posts, where they only exist as digital data inside database tables.

- They are not included in your site’s feed. Note: there are plugins available that will add your pages to your site’s RSS feed.

Pages (or even a specific post) can be set as a static “home” page. In a separate tutorial we’ll explain how to set up a page to display as the home page of your WordPress site. We’ll also show you in a separate tutorial how to create a separate page for displaying your latest blog posts (where a list of your most recent posts display in a page that most people typically call “blog”).

Because Posts are referenced from many different areas of your WordPress site (Archives, Categories, Searches, Tags, RSS Feeds, other page views, etc …), and Pages are typically only accessed from their one published location, many WordPress SEO experts argue that it is generally better to post content that you want to attract more exposure from visitors and gain better results from search engines using Posts, rather than Pages.

What Type Of Content Can Be Added To WordPress Posts or Pages?

With WordPress you can easily add or edit the following types of content into your Posts and Pages: Text You can add plain, formatted and/or hyperlinked text in a variety of fonts and styles to posts and pages…

WordPress offers the option of using both a Visual Editor and an HTML Editor for adding content as text.

Meta text can also be added to WordPress Post and Pages although this will depend on the configuration of your site’s settings and plugins. E.g tittles, keywords and description that appears on search engines), create custom excerpts, etc.

In the section below, there are tutorials on how to add text based content to WordPress Post and Pages. Check out the related section below.

Media

You can add or embed media content into WordPress such as videos, audio files, downloadable files (e.g. PDF documents), images (photos, logos, graphics, banners, etc) and more.

For step-by-step tutorials on how to add media-based content to WordPress posts and pages, see the “Related Tutorials” section below.

Scripts

With WordPress you can add scripts into your posts and pages using code like JavaScript, short codes and plugins. Many of these scripts also allow you to control the content that appears on your site from an external or remote location (e.g. Manage advertising banners or subscription forms).

Content can also be added to WordPress posts vs pages by inserting code directly into your file templates. Please note, however, that in order to add and edit file templates, you will need to have at least a basic understanding of code languages like HTML and PHP.

WordPress is huge and can sometimes be overwhelming about where to start. As you move on to the next Page, you will have a clearer picture of where to start and progress to building a professional WordPress Site.

For step-by-step tutorials on how to add scripts and code to WordPress posts versus pages, see the “Related Tutorials” section below.