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When just getting started with WordPress, one of the first things you’ll soon notice is that WordPress offers two main ways to publish new content: via ‘Posts’ and via ‘Pages’. So what exactly are posts and pages? How do they differ? And perhaps most importantly: when should you use each format?
Here’s everything you need to know:
WordPress Posts vs Pages – Explained:
– (note: video credits to Topher DeRosia – creator of HeroPress)
Video Transcript:
Hi! This is Topher with WinningWP. In this video, we’re going to answer the question, “what’s the difference between WordPress posts and WordPress pages?” Let’s dive right in and I’ll explain. First off, I’d like to mention that the word “blog” is short for “weblog.” And a log is like a journal, ship captains keep them. If you’ve ever watch Star Trek, then you’re familiar with Kirk saying, “Captain’s Log, Stardate” whatever. So a blog is like a journal and journals are inherently chronological. And that’s one of the things that sets posts apart. Posts are inherently chronological. We’re looking here at a blog and here’s a post from June nd, . And the one right before it, is from May st, . And before that, April th. And April th, and so on. Posts are intended to be read chronologically. Pages on the other hand, are not. Here’s a page on the same website. All it does, is show off some wallpaper. It is available for download. The date that this wallpaper was published, is sort of irrelevant, it’s simply here for download. So one of the differences between a post and a page, is that posts are intended to be chronological, and pages are not. Another difference is that posts often are organized with categories and tags, whereas pages are not. If we come over here to edit a page, you’ll see there are no categories and tags. Pages simply are not organized that way, whereas posts are. Lastly, posts usually allow comments. Pages can have comments but they’re typically turned off. Something that pages have that posts do not, is the ability to order them. Right here there’s a field that takes a number, and you can order them numerically. This is a little bit tedious with this user interface, but there are some excellent plugins that allow you to drag and drop your pages to reorder them, and then that order can be used by your navigation, or any number of other options. Posts cannot be ordered this way, posts are always ordered chronologically. Another difference is that pages can have templates. This particular theme does not have one, but if there were templates available, there would be another drop-down list just like Parent, and you can choose another template, and another template might be full-width instead of sidebar. Or, it could be sidebar left or sidebar right, or an extra footer or something like that. Posts don’t usually get templates like that. It’s possible but very unlikely. So let’s review real quick. Posts are intended to be chronological and pages are not. Posts are easily organized by tags and categories, whereas pages are not. And posts often allow for comments and pages usually don’t. They can, but it’s unusual. Pages on the other hand, can have custom templates, where posts usually cannot. And a custom template would allow you to do something like sidebar left or sidebar right or no sidebar at all. And then pages can also be numerically ordered. It’s just an arbitrary order from zero through whatever number you want to count up to. Posts are only ordered chronologically. If you’d like to learn more about WordPress, check out WinningWP.com.
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