Posts vs. pages in WordPress — are there any differences?
Starting a WordPress site can be overwhelming if you’re new to building websites. One commonly asked question by newbies is the difference between pages and posts. While the two may look similar, there are several differences you need to know.
This post will explain the differences and help you understand when to use each.
In This Article
Understanding WordPress Posts
Posts in WordPress are entries listed in chronological order. These usually feature dynamic content of different types, with common examples being:
- Blog posts
- News articles
- Product updates
In essence, posts are used to share content for engagement conversion purposes.
To create a post in WordPress, head over to your dashboard, go to “Posts,” and click on “Add New.”
Doing so will bring you to the post editor where you can edit all the details of your post. This includes content, categories, tags, and other post and SEO settings.
Once you’ve created your post and optimized it using a WordPress SEO plugin, click publish, and your post will be live. Use the comment section to drive conversations around your topic. You can also boost engagement drive traffic to your post by including social sharing buttons. These allow readers to share your post with their network.
Another notable feature about posts is that they usually have an author attributed for writing and publishing that post. The author’s name is usually placed at the top, at the bottom, or both. However, if you don't wish to display the authors name, you don't have to as it's not mandatory.
Understanding WordPress Pages
WordPress pages are static entries that are permanent fixtures of your website. However, just because they are static does not mean they’re set in stone. You can still update them as you see fit.
Unlike posts, pages aren't organized in chronological order. Instead, they’re usually listed in the menu of your website.
Typical examples of pages include:
- Home page
- Contact page
- About page
- Privacy Policy page
You can even have a “Blog” page that displays all your posts in chronological order.
Creating pages in WordPress is super easy. Simply head over to your dashboard, go to the “Pages” option, and click on “Add New.”
Fill in all essential details, click “Publish,” and your page will be live.
Since pages aren’t designed to be social, they don’t feature social sharing buttons or author information.
Another interesting feature about pages is that they are hierarchical. This means you can turn a page into a subpage of another. To do so, choose a parent page from the “Page Attributes” settings when editing a page.
With WordPress, you can even create custom page templates using your theme. With this feature, you can customize the look of each page if you want to.
Posts vs. Pages in WordPress — What Are the Main Differences?
Posts and pages in WordPress have a lot of similarities, and it can sometimes be difficult for newbies to tell them apart. For example, both are used to publish content. Also, you can add text, images, forms, and much more to both.
Despite these similarities, however, some significant differences set them apart. Let’s zero in on the main ones so you can easily tell them apart:
Posts vs. Pages — Timeliness
One of the main differences between posts and pages in WordPress is that posts are timely while pages are timeless. In other words, pages are used for content that doesn’t change much, like company information. But, of course, you may change this information when necessary.
Posts, on the other hand, have a publication date. The date helps search engines and users determine the relevance of the information contained in the post.
Posts vs. Pages — Social Engagement
If you’re looking to drive engagement with your audience, posts were created for just that. One reason is that posts come with a comments section by default, although you can disable this if you so wish. Another reason is that most themes come with built-in social sharing buttons that make it easier for your readers to share the content they love with their networks.
Posts vs. Pages — Organization
The way a website’s content is organized plays a huge role in how content is accessed and consumed. This is another area in which posts and pages differ.
Posts are organized using taxonomies. This means you can use categories and tags to group similar content together to make it easier for your readers to discover.
On the other hand, pages are hierarchical. You can organize them according to the level of importance you attribute to each page. You can do this by organizing pages as child and parent pages.
Posts vs. Pages — Author and Date Attribution
You’ll notice on most posts that they have author attribution and feature a date on which they were published. You won’t find these on pages.
Posts vs. Pages — RSS Feed Syndication
Another glaring difference between posts and pages in WordPress is RSS feed syndication. You can add Posts to an RSS feed, but you can't do so for Pages.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Posts vs. Pages in WordPress
Before we wrap up our article on the difference between posts and pages in WordPress, let’s quickly answer some FAQs we’ve seen from many new WordPress users.
Is there a Limit to the Number of Pages or Posts I can Publish?
There’s no limit to the number of posts or pages you can have on your website. The number of pages and posts you publish depend on what you want to achieve with your website.
Which is More Important Between Pages and Posts?
Both are important as they serve different purposes that help you achieve the goals you set for your business and website. While you may have a website with pages and no posts, it’s not advisable as this means you can’t keep your audience engaged with new content.
Pages vs. Posts in WordPress — Which is More Beneficial to SEO?
How do pages and posts impact your search engine optimization (SEO)?
Search engines place a lot of value on aged pages. However, they also value websites that regularly update their content.
So, for a robust SEO strategy, you need both.
Posts vs. Pages in WordPress — Knowing the Difference is Key to Your Website’s Success
Knowing the difference between posts and pages in WordPress is fundamental to running a successful website. We hope this post has helped clarify those differences, so you know:
- What to publish
- When to publish
- Why you’re publishing
Now that you understand that Pages and Posts in WordPress are different, you’ll also want to know how to optimize each for SEO. One of the easiest (and fastest) ways is to use the best WordPress SEO plugin — AIOSEO. So, go ahead and download AIOSEO and give your website a better chance of ranking.
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Posts and Pages is vital to the health of the website. The differences between Post and Pages is well elaborated in the write up
“All You Need to Know” about posts and pages? I think you have fallen short on the benefits of various applications for each type of content published (page or post).
‘Pages’ are not only for static info like contact, about or other background information. You need to check to see what affiliate marketers are doing with pages!!!
Creating content on a post for engagement for example my be great – but not when you consider that without traffic already flowing to your site, these ‘post’, are useless when you can have a page promoted by content on an already highly trafficked web 2.0 site driving the desired visitors from 1 site to yours in the manner Google wants it to happen.
Come on! You’re supposed to be the experts – provide the content to prove your knowledge / expertise, not just a ‘scrape’.
Hi Philip,
Thank you so much for your input. The article was meant to be an informative post, not a strategic one. However, we’ll be sure to add your tip and more info when we create a post around strategic uses of posts and pages.
Thanks again
Hello, when I have a very simple site, where I plan no blogging… Is it OK to use posts instead of pages for the main content, like about page, services…contact…? It is the matter of using one free WP template that we like, but which doesn’t work the way we would like using pages… it works perfectly as we like using posts. But I don’t know if there is some “hidden” technical issue of using posts instead of pages.
Thanks for your answer.