Post or Page?

If you are new to using WordPress to manage your farm website, you will notice that you have the option to create pages or posts. But what is the difference? Find out how to use these two choices to create content that your readers can find and enjoy.

Let’s start by examining the differences between posts and pages.

Posts

When published, a blog post goes into your RSS feed (RSS stands for “really simple syndication” and is a tool readers can use to have content delivered to them). Readers who have subscribed to your feed via email or in their favorite reader will receive notice that you have a new post up.

Depending on your site design and settings, posts can be displayed in order, newest first, in several locations. Your homepage may default to this, as will a blog page if you have one. You can display new posts in your sidebar or footer. You can even insert a few of your newest posts into a page to make them easy to find. Also, with WordPress, you have access to several types of archive pages that automatically display posts grouped by month, tag, or category (for example, here are examples from our own site of archives by month, tag, and category).

Which brings us to another feature of posts as distinct from pages—the unique organizational tools you have to help readers find more content they like. Posts can be marked with tags and categories to group them. Tags can then be displayed in a tag cloud, sort of like an index for your site (scroll down to the footer to see our tag cloud under the heading “Topics” for one example). Categories work well on a navigation menu if the blog is the main feature of your site.

Also depending on your site and theme settings, your post may display a date in the URL (the address you see in the bar at the top of your browser). You may also see the date somewhere near the top or bottom of the post itself. This can be useful for keeping your blog looking fresh.

Pages

A page is designed to be a static resource. It does not display a date, making it “evergreen.”

Pages can have a hierarchy. In the settings menu in the editor, you can select a page to serve as the parent page of the page you are currently working on. (For an example of how page hierarchies can be used, check out Your Path to Abundant Living in Flyover Country. Notice that this page serves as a parent page for each of the 8 steps that follow, as reflected in the URL for each page.) Some themes display the page hierarchy near the top of the page in what are termed breadcrumbs.

Depending on your settings, you can have top-level pages automatically added to one or more menus.

Which to Choose

Most people will find it beneficial to use pages for static content and posts for regular updates.

Examples of static content suited for pages include:

• About page.
• Contact page.
• Landing pages providing information about your products or services.
• Reference pages that make it easy to find all the posts in a series, for example.

Examples of timely content suited for posts include:

• Magazine-style articles.
• Updates from your farm.
• Shareable content, such as recipes.
• News stories that you are commenting on.

But you really can’t go wrong when choosing between a post or a page. Play around with it and see what you like best.

Helpful Resource

Post vs. Page
Helpful support document from WordPress with more explanations and examples.