Yesterday, a client asked if it mattered whether she put her content in as a post or a page. This is a question I’m frequently asked by those new to WordPress, so I told her I would answer her here at the site so everyone else wondering could get the answer without having to ask.
(By the way, you really help me and a whole bunch of others when you send me questions I can answer this way. If you’ve got a question, send it to me.)
How Posts and Pages are Alike
- They both have titles.
- They both have content.
- They both can have pictures and other media embedded in them.
- They both have individual URLs through which they are accessible.
- They both can have comments (though many times, comments are turned off for pages.)
- They both use your Theme to maintain a consistent look and feel throughout your site.
How Posts and Pages Differ
- Pages are not posts and are not cycled through your blog’s post page chronologically. (Posts are.)
- Pages can be organized into Pages and Sub-Pages. (Posts can’t.)
- Pages cannot be associated with Categories and cannot be assigned Tags. (Posts can.)
- Pages are for content that is less likely to change over time. (This last point is a little murky…read on.)
How to Decide
Think about the library. Pages are the books in the reference section that you’re not allowed to check out. Posts are the books you can borrow. (This speaks to the ‘permanence’ of pages vs. posts.)
Think about your old, HTML website. Pages are like the pages there. Posts are like the newsletters you sent out each week or month. (Which begs the question…if you’re blogging, do you still need to publish a newsletter? Hmmm…that’s a post for another day.)
Think about the timelessness of the content you’re trying to place. Pages are for content such as “About Me,” “Contact Me,” etc. Pages are often used to house information about yourself or your site that is somehow timeless – information that is always applicable.
So, yes, it does matter whether you put your content in as a page or a post, but the decision is up to you and how you’ve organized your content, overall.
