WordPress was initially started as a blog publishing platform. But it has evolved and grown into a fully functioning online publishing system that helps you create different types of websites besides blogs.
WordPress contains several features that are essential for building a website.
Out of the several options on the WordPress dashboard that you’ll find, pages and posts are two of the most used features.
Although almost all blogs use pages and posts to publish their content online, because of their similar properties, there is sometimes this dilemma associated with which content to use where.
Let’s now look at pages and posts more closely, and try to figure out which content is best to publish as a page and a post.
Typically, a WordPress page and post look similar. They both have a title and a body, and you can publish any content using either of the two. However, there are a few minor differences between a page and a post that we should understand.
Time Sensitivity
One of the basic factors that differentiate a page from a post is the fact that posts are time sensitive. It basically means that on every post that you publish, the date and time on which it is published will show. On the other hand, a page will never show the date or time when it was published.
Because of its time sensitivity, posts are best suited to blogs, news announcements, events and time centered content. Similarly, any content that you’d want to be accessible at all times should be posted as a page.
Classification
Posts are usually classified into categories. It is usually done according to the type of content that is published. For instance, I write a lot of blogs and publish them as posts. While I do so, I categorize my blogs into categories like marketing, content creation, etc., based on the nature of my blog.
A page, however, is classified as per hierarchy; which means that you can decide the order in which it should be visible to your viewers, or if it should be visible at all to your viewers.
Content Accessibility
This is a lot similar to the time sensitivity factor. A post is displayed on your website in reverse chronological order, meaning the latest post will be shown at the top. When there are several posts, chances are that some of your posts may go unnoticed by your viewers because they were posted long ago.
Notifications
Posts are automatically synced with your RSS feed. However, when a new page is published, it isn’t synced to your RSS feed.
So, if there’s content that you look forward to share with your RSS subscribers, a post is the preferred option.
Layout Options
One of the interesting features of a WordPress page is that you get to use custom templates for individual pages. While this usually depends on the theme you’re using, most of the WordPress themes allow custom templates and layout options for individual WordPress pages.
WordPress posts, however, do not come with this feature, and a consistent layout runs through all posts.
WordPress pages and posts are pretty much similar in the first look, but a better understanding of the key features and differences between the two is important because it helps you publish relevant content accordingly.
WordPress Page or Post?
A WordPress page is for static information like the about page, services, and contact information whereas posts are mostly for articles that you create on a regular basis.
