Guide to WordPress – part 3 – Pages or Posts

These are questions I get asked all the time: What’s the difference between posts and pages? What do I use them for?

Although you can add content using both posts and pages, they have two very different uses. Answering the first question will also result in answering the second question. So here goes…

Let me lay out each in a list format to highlight the two obvious differences.

1. Posts

   1. Categories – Posts use categories as the main way to index each post.
   2. Tags – Posts use tags to further index each post, think of a tag like a decimal point that can be used repeatedly.

2. Pages

   1. Parent/Sibling Page Hierarchy – Pages index themselves by having child and parent pages.
   2. Template Options – Allow you to select different page layouts to display your content.

My most basic answer is Pages are static and Posts are free flowing. But I’m going to have to explain what I mean by that.

We generally think of a page as a single unchanging element containing all the information relevant to the title of the page. An example of this would be a contact page or an about page, both of these would contain content, probably images and would also probably not change whilst you have the site.

Posts on the other hand provide single servings of information, images, products, articles, a way for you to push your latest content to the front of your site or to the top of its category. For instance, if you’re a photographer using WordPress as a portfolio, you’d probably want to use posts to add your latest photographs. Or if you’re a shop then this would be your latest product.

So depending on what you’re going to use WordPress for will determine how you’ll use the posts and pages.

With that said, let’s dip our toes in and start by adding your first post. Lets go >>

Featured in this series:

1. Guide to WordPress – part 1.  What is WordPress
2. Guide to WordPress – part 2. Introducing the Dashboard
3. Guide to WordPress – part 3. Pages or Posts
4. Guide to WordPress – part 4. Adding your First Post
5. Guide to WordPress – part 5. Media/Comments/Plugins
6. Guide to WordPress – part 6. Adding your First Page