WordPress Post Vs. Page | WordPress 101
Welcome back to the WordPress 101 series. In this series, we are discussing the basics of WordPress for new WordPress users. In this article, you’ll learn the differences between WordPress post vs. page.
Often new users get confused between WordPress posts and pages. I remember my cousin created more than 10 pages before he realized he should’ve created posts, not pages. It may be difficult for new users to understand why WordPress has two separate options to publish content.
For them, one can create 200 pages instead of 200 posts, which should make no difference in how search engines see that content.
So let’s discuss why WordPress has two separate options to publish content on a website and why you should choose the correct one before publishing your content.
WordPress Post Vs. Page
When it comes to publishing content on WordPress, one can create pages and posts. Posts are more like articles that need to be updated regularly as things in the posts change. Posts are listed in reverse chronological order, i.e., the latest posts appear first. The blog page lists all the posts.
WordPress can be used for hosting different types of websites, but the type of websites it is majorly known for is blogging. For bloggers like me, we create more posts. These posts need regular updates, and hence WordPress posts have published time or last updated time. The main difference between posts and pages is that one can update posts more frequently than pages. That’s why posts have a timestamp as to when they were published or last updated.
WordPress Page
On the other hand, pages do not have any timestamp. Mostly, pages contain static content. Some of the best examples of WordPress pages are Contact us, About us, Privacy policy, Copyright policy, etc. All of this content does not need regular updates. Once you publish the contact us page, it will remain like it for months or even years.
Secondly, we can show posts on the homepage or sidebar. Almost all WordPress themes provide beautiful widgets to show off blog posts in different sections of your site. LinuxAndUbuntu homepage is a great example of how we can use WordPress posts to structure content better. It is another benefit of creating posts. We can group posts into categories and tags, but pages can’t.
Pages should appear in either navigation menus or footer. Mostly, Contact us, About us, and Privacy policy pages appear in the footer. However, pages can be grouped into primary and sub-pages. If one assigns a page as a child of another page, it’ll change the URL permalink of the child page.
For example, if a website has a pricing page /pricing that lists all the product summary and pricing; then, there can be separate pages for each product that inherit the main pricing page. In that case, the individual product page’s URL would show the page inherits the pricing page /pricing/product-1.
Posts & pages layouts
To beautifully show your content, different themes provide multiple layouts for posts and pages. WordPress themes for blogs have multiple layouts for posts.
On the other hand, most pages have a simple layout that is up to the user to design and show the content in any way they want. Portfolio pages are great examples of that.
RSS Feed
RSS feed stands for Really Simple Syndication. It is a great way to provide updates to users. Anyone can use a feed aggregator application like Feedly and put in the RSS feed URL to receive updates.
For example, to read the latest posts from LinuxAndUbuntu, one can use our feed at https://www.linuxandubuntu.com/feed. Using this URL in any feed aggregator app will notify users of the newest posts published on LAU.
Now the thing is — to provide updates through RSS feed, one should create posts, not pages. RSS feed does not include pages but posts.
How to create new post?
Creating a new WordPress post is super easy. From the admin panel’s sidebar, click ‘Posts’, and it’ll show all the posts you’ve created. It also reveals options to add a new post, manage categories and tags. Or click the button that says ‘Add New’ on top of all posts.
It will redirect the user to the WordPress post editor called Gutenberg. You can add post title, write post content, manage the post’s options from the sidebar and at the bottom of the post.
How to create new page?
Similarly, one can create WordPress pages by clicking Pages > Add New.
How many posts can be created?
Unlimited. Search engines like content, so publish as many quality posts as you can. WordPress allows for managing posts easily.
Conclusion
So these are the major differences between WordPress posts and pages. If you need any more help managing WordPress, wait for our next article in the WordPress 101 series.