WordPress: Should I Publish As Post or Page?
People who use WordPress for the very first time get confused between pages and posts. Both these features come by default in this tool and most users find it hard to distinguish the two. The problem manifolds multiple times when you look at the dashboard and see both these fields having a similar outlook. So the question which arises in every beginner’s mind is “Should I publish as post or page?”
If you’ve recently set up a new WordPress site, you have to decide between using any of these two features. Basically, you can use any of them as both pages and posts work in a somewhat similar way. However, if you want to make the most of your website, it is imperative that you should know about the difference between these two entities.
The reason behind it is that each of these two options comes with their own sets of advantages and disadvantages. Depending on your type of content, it might be beneficial to prefer one format over the other. Otherwise, you might never be able to reap the full potential of your WordPress site.
In order to give you a detailed understanding of these features, we’ve curated this guide after thorough research. In this guide, we’ll highlight the key differences between both these features. Once you’ve gone through this guide, you can answer any individual who comes up to you with this query—Should I publish as post or page?
WordPress: Should I Publish As Post or Page?
Posts
For people who are planning to use WordPress to create a blog, they should always prefer the posts format. This type of content is generally recorded in consecutive reverse numbers on your website’s homepage. In simple words, the latest articles will always appear prominently on the home page of your website.
The post gets archived after a considerable duration of time, so if a reader has to find a specific post, he or she has to go through the archive portion of your website.
The post format is designed in such a way that it will display the date of its publication. This is a viable feature for all those website owners who are using their WordPress sites for publishing news-based articles. Basically, it makes it easy for the visitors to read fresh news as they don’t have to dig through piles of articles. But if someone is looking to find an older article, they have to spend some time on the website.
However, you can solve this problem as well by connecting all the related posts with suitable tags. In this way, if a user is interested in a specific type of article, he or she can read similar articles by clicking on the tags.
Another thing which is unique about the WordPress posts is that they come with a built-in comments feature. This particular feature makes it easy for your readers to interact with the site owner or even with other readers.
Furthermore, there is also a sharing button which lets the visitors share their favorite type of content on a number of social media websites. All in all, if you’re going to publish a time-sensitive article, it might be better to go with the posts format.
Pages
When it comes to publishing timeless content, you should always prefer the WordPress pages. Such type of content includes but not limited to contact us, privacy and other such services.
For example, you’ll publish the “about us” page for just one time. You are going to use the same page for years to come, and even though you can make minor changes, you aren’t going to publish a new about us page with the start of every year. Also, there is no comment option on the WordPress pages.
Since the pages format comes without any kind of date, it makes them ideal for evergreen content. Apart from the aforementioned options, you can use this format for publishing such type of articles which can stay relevant for a considerable duration of time.
One feature, which WordPress has recently installed in their pages format, is the inclusion of custom templates. You can apply these templates to a separate page on your website. It means that depending on the type of content on a particular page; you can change its appearance as compared to any other page on that website. This feature isn’t available by default in the WordPress posts as you can only use it in this particular format.
If you feel that one page stands out from the rest on your website in terms of importance, you can use the custom templates. In addition, many WordPress users make use of this format when it comes to design landing pages. In this way, they can make one page stand out from the rest of their content.
So if you’re going to publish evergreen information, it is recommended to choose pages format. It will come out without any kind of date or time. Hence, your visitors will always consider it as a recently published article.
Pages versus Posts
Here are a few major differences which exist between pages and post. However, you can always use certain plugins to remove some of these differences.
- Pages are used for evergreen content. Posts are preferred for time-conscious articles
- Pages are not listed in the RSS feed. Posts are listed in the RSS feed
- You can choose custom templates for pages, a function that is not available for WordPress posts.
Conclusion
“WordPress: should I publish as post or page?”—an inevitable question especially among the beginners. In choosing between pages and posts, you just have to remember that it all comes down to the content on your website. If you have set up a WordPress site for publishing news articles or other time-sensitive content, it might be beneficial to prefer the posts format. It will display its date of publication to the visitors which is always a good thing to have on a news website.
On the contrary, the pages format should be preferred for publishing a timeless content. You can use it for creating About Us, Contact Us, etc. Even if you’re going to use this format for a blog, make sure that the article is timeless.
