WordPress Posts vs Pages

One of the questions that gets asked a lot is “what is the difference between posts and pages?”

In terms of what your website visitors and the search engines see there is not a lot of difference. Both posts and pages can be referred to as ‘articles’. And you can choose for each post or page whether to allow comments or not. The URLs look the same and the layout of the page/post may be exactly the same.

Depending on the theme you’ve chosen you may have some different layout options for pages that are not available on posts. Both posts and pages can have featured images. How (and if) featured images are displayed within your website depends on your theme’s settings.

So let’s look at what a post is

Add New PostA post is an article which is automatically added to your blogroll as soon as it’s published. So your newest post is automatically shown first when someone accesses your blog. Posts generally show the date published and the author and they can have tags and, more importantly, categories.

Your main content on your website, that you keep adding to as often as you can, is going to be in posts.

Pages

Pages are your evergreen content such as your Privacy Policy, Disclaimer, Terms and Conditions and your About Me page. These are articles that you want to be found in the same place and easily accessible for your visitors. Pages are usually added to your site menu individually and are often in a drop down section of the menu under ‘About’. Pages usually don’t have a published date or tags or categories.

Post vs PageHow to change a post into a page

So what do you do if you’ve created a post and you realize that it should be a page or vice versa? There’s a plugin for that. I use Post Type Switcher by John James Jacoby. It’s a nifty little plugin that keeps the same URL so you don’t lose any existing search engine rankings and any comments that your article has received automatically get transferred. When you’ve finished using the plugin it’s safe to deactivate it but I wouldn’t delete it just in case you need it again.

Have you got any posts that should be pages or pages that should be posts? Please add to the conversation in the comments section below.


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6 thoughts on “WordPress Posts vs Pages”

  1. Yes, the differences between posts and pages were an enigma to me which I slowly figured out. Reading your post here in time would have made things easier!
    I use posts for srticles which, with the plugin, are transferred automatically to MEDIUM. Although I don’t have a lot of followers there yet, but it seems to me a platform for more elevated writings and that’s what I normally do.
    Pages are the platforms for my broadcasts, the places which need editing a lot before they have the right shape – and for having them approved by my guests I need to publish them them NOT to automatically appear in the blog-section.

    Reply
  2. Hello Marion,

    I avoid adding pages due to a specific problem that I don’t usually see discussed. Perhaps you have a suggestion. On a desktop there is no problem but when viewed on a mobile device (specifically a cell phone since it has a smaller screen) my pages show up at the top so in order to see my posts, the viewer would have to scroll down. I am afraid an About Me page, Privacy Policy page etc. etc. will be too boring to capture their attention.

    I want the real content to be front and center. Therefore I keep my pages to a minimum. There are more I would like to add but I don’t know how to avoid this problem. If you have any suggestions I would love to hear them

    Thanks,

    Jessica

    Reply
    • Hi Jessica,

      Sorry it’s taken so long for me to get back to you. We’re all very busy at this time of the year.

      My suggestion for your website menu is to add your categories to your main menu and put the pages into a drop-down under ‘About’ instead of having them listed individually. This video will show you how.

      Best,
      Marion

      Reply
  3. Thank you so much! I really made a mess of things by publishing content as posts when I wanted it as pages. Ugh. This article and plugin will save me a lot of aggravation. There really is a plugin for everything, but your expertise makes finding them a lot easier!

    Reply
  4. Yes, in the beginning, i struggled a little with the right way how to make my posts vs projects vs pages, but had to find out. You are correct how you write it. However did you also come across projects, do you use them, if yes for what.

    Reply
    • Projects are part of WordPress.com not part of the core of WordPress (from WordPress.org) so I have never used them. This article explains about the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org and WordPress the content management system.

      Thank you for reading.

      Reply

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