Once WordPress is installed and a user starts contemplating content, the first question that usually comes up is something along the lines of “Posts? Pages? Huh?” At a glance, the difference may not be entirely obvious.
Here’s a quick explanation….
Posts are posts. Pages are pages. Got it? Good.
Not enough? Fine. I’ll explain. If you’re gonna twist my arm.
WordPress includes, by default, two types of entries: posts and pages. What’s the difference?
Let’s start with basic site building
When building a website, you lay out your structure. Pages are part of this structure — items that stay put indefinitely. If you compare a website to a house, pages are the parts that don’t go anywhere. Walls, doors, windows.
You may have a page called “About Me” so people can find out … well … about you. Or if you’re an author, you probably have a page that points visitors to things you’ve written. Your contact page, social media information, bio, or anything else you might put in your main navigation is a page.
Pages don’t generally display their published date and don’t have tags or categories. They just sit there, timelessly providing the same content day after day.
So what’s a post?
A post is very similar to a page, but with a different purpose. Even though you use the same tools to create them, posts are not primary fixtures to your site. You’re not likely to include each post in your navigation. They will have categories, tags and a date attached.
If we go back to the house analogy, posts are not parts of the house, but things in the house and things that happen in the house. They are dinners, parties, movie nights, and basketball games in the driveway. Pictures on the wall. People that come and go.
They are meant to accumulate like memories. As you publish more of them, older posts move down the list. Like real life events, more recent posts are more present, closer to the top o the pile. Old ones are still there, still accessible, but you have to scan through the list or search to get to them.
Posts are likely to be the “news”, “updates”, “articles” or “blog” section of your site.
And there you have it
That’s the difference between posts and pages according to me. I’m probably right. At least that’s what I heard when I was talking to myself this morning. But I must go now. My book characters are interrupting me.
