What is the Difference Between a Page and Post in WordPress

Intro.

This is going to be a short article describing to you the difference between a page and post in WordPress, or any other website content management system.

Often new users can get confused, with when to use a page and when to use a post. Once you’ve been working with websites it becomes clear, but initially, I can understand how it confuses people.

They both look similar from the WordPress dashboard where you build these elements, but there are a few differences which I’ll point out.

So lets have a look at what makes pages different from posts.

What is a WordPress Page

The major difference between a page and a post in WordPress, or any other CMS, is that pages are date IRRELEVANT whereas posts are published with a date. What does this mean?

It means a page, such as your Homepage or About Me page, are a timeless part of your website and don’t rely on having a date attached to them, as they as a static page. These pages will generally remain in a static place and can have posts integrated into them if required.

You’ll also find there is no Author attached to a page, unlike a post which displays information about the article such as date, author, categories and tags.

Pages are important information that will often be placed in your menu structure so that they can easily be fund.

You’ll find that pages are also hierarchical, meaning you can place a page under parent page. This is extremely handy if you are intending to build a large website with loads of pages (as opposed to posts).

Although nothing is affected on the front-end of your site, the Pages section on your WordPress dashboard will be easier to navigate. This is because all the child pages are found directly under the parent page.

What is a WordPress Post

A post on the other hand does have a date attached to it. These are generally your articles that get published on a particular date.

You can also choose an Author to have published this post, along with tags and categories. Some themes may have an option to turn off these settings but the default WordPress settings will show this data.

Whilst posts are data relevant, they can get lost in your website because of this. A post that was published 2 years ago, may be difficult to find. Therefore, it’s a good idea to add categories and/or tags to your posts. This way visitors can search for categorised content.

Oh, and it’s probably a good idea to add a search widget in your sidebar.

It is possible to add posts into your menu structure, but its also unlikely. Most web designers will add a category to a menu so that all posts within that category will appear.

Another feature of a post, is the comments section below the post itself. This is an area for article engagement, which is not directly available on pages.

Examples of a WordPress Page

Apart from the obvious Homepage and About pages, you’ll also require other pages such as a Privacy Policy, Terms & Conditions, Disclaimers etc. Anything that is an information page relevant to your website should be created as a page and included in its own menu.

Apart from this, you may want a prominent page for specific tools or promotions that you want easily found. An example of this is my ‘Recommended Tools‘ page which can be accessed from my front page.

Landing pages are probably the biggest usage of a page. This is a promotional page to sell a product or service that has not only been configured for search engines, but often promoted via paid advertising.

Examples of a WordPress Post

So, if you see a front page with articles on it, like in the image below, these are blog posts, each created from an individual post. One of these articles that made it to my homepage, is this post you’re reading now. This is a post article which has a category attached to it so it can be found in search results. If you search for ‘WordPress’, you should be able to find this post.

Often you’ll see ‘blog’ in a primary menu bar. This is a blog PAGE with all the POSTS being directed to it. I’ll show you how to set this up below.

1. Firstly, you need to add a new page and give it a name such as ‘Blog’ and Publish it.
2. Then, from your WordPress Dashboard, go to Settings > Reading.
3. Here, you’ll see 2 drop-down menus. One for your Homepage, and one for your Blog Posts. If your new ‘Blog’ page was ‘Published’, it will appear in the drop-down lists. Simply choose the ‘Blog’ page and save your settings.

Note there’s also a box to type in the maximum number of posts you’d like displayed on your posts page. Once you get over the amount of posts nominated, a link to ‘older entries’ will appear at the bottom of the blog page.

Wrapping Up

I hope this has cleared up the confusion between when to add a post and when to add a page. There is a clear difference but when first starting out, it’s not as obvious as it could be.

Both have their place in your online business, and you’ll want to think ahead about how to plan out which pages will be for which information.

Once you have your initial pages set-up, the majority of your work will be done via posting. Just don’t forget to add categories and/or tags to your posts so they can be found easily enough.