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Blog vs pages for writing articles (NOT about SEO)

by ikuret75
3 replies
Hi,
In my previous projects I never used "Blog" posts in WP. I have only used "pages". So they don't come up in order of the new articles but they stay where each article belongs in the structure. I liked that way.I did it for a few reasons.

1: It is easier to be structured or categorized (for me), and I don't have to worry about having duplicate contents for SEO.

2: It doesn't either show when the article was written or come up in order of the new articles so it doesn't give an impression that some article are "old." (The information I write is NOT time sensitive but if the article is old I'm afraid readers might take the information is also old regardless)

But it seems using blog posts is more popular and I'm just wondering if using it has some merits I don't know? I guess structure wise WP can do anything so I guess I' m asking if it is better to "look like" a blog post marketing wise? I mean, it's kind of the opposite of #2 which I just wrote but it would look like articles are constantly coming up etc.

Thanks
#articles #blog #pages #seo #writing
  • Profile picture of the author Your IM Friend
    Well, yes, for some type of websites pages work much better than posts for structuring content, but I think that most people still want to have the "blog" type of website where new posts are shown latest.

    I usually do combination of both posts and pages to structure content better, mostly depending on what I want to achieve with particular website.

    But, what I really want to say is that you can easily remove date from your posts by simply deleting proper line of code inside the editor. That way you can solve the problem of content appearing old. That's very useful when you have that type of evergreen content...
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    • Profile picture of the author Steve B
      A couple of things to consider:

      1. The term "blog" is short for web log. If you consider what a log is, as sort of diary, or entries in succession, then making posts makes more sense. You post one content piece, then another, then another over time. People understand that some content is going to be added to your site before others. In fact, when I look at a blog, I like to see that the content started years ago, remained fairly steady over the years, and is still being updated today. It shows that the blogger is experience, consistent, and that he/she has kept at it over the years.

      2. If you just have a site for "articles" then maybe the blog format is not best for you. There are other alternatives including article libraries and directories.

      3. There are reasons for static "pages" in WP. Typically they don't change often and don't cause a duplicate content problem. Pages should be reserved for things like "about me", site policies and terms of use, contact information, newsletter sign-up, etc.

      4. Posts can be organized in "categories" or by dates, or by topics depending upon what you want to do. From your thread post, I don't think you understand the flexibility that is possible with the WP platform because you can do most anything you want to the structure of your site.

      Spend some time learning and extend the functionality of your WP blog.

      Steve
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      • Profile picture of the author ikuret75
        Originally Posted by Steve B View Post

        A couple of things to consider:

        1. The term "blog" is short for web log. If you consider what a log is, as sort of diary, or entries in succession, then making posts makes more sense. You post one content piece, then another, then another over time. People understand that some content is going to be added to your site before others. In fact, when I look at a blog, I like to see that the content started years ago, remained fairly steady over the years, and is still being updated today. It shows that the blogger is experience, consistent, and that he/she has kept at it over the years.

        2. If you just have a site for "articles" then maybe the blog format is not best for you. There are other alternatives including article libraries and directories.

        3. There are reasons for static "pages" in WP. Typically they don't change often and don't cause a duplicate content problem. Pages should be reserved for things like "about me", site policies and terms of use, contact information, newsletter sign-up, etc.

        4. Posts can be organized in "categories" or by dates, or by topics depending upon what you want to do. From your thread post, I don't think you understand the flexibility that is possible with the WP platform because you can do most anything you want to the structure of your site.

        Spend some time learning and extend the functionality of your WP blog.

        Steve
        Thank you both.
        In reply to Steve's answer.

        Well, I do know that WP can do most anything (I wrote that in the end of my initial post). I'm just used to structure the site by "pages" using specific plugins. Actually, I write "similar" kind of articles as many bloggers write. It is just easier for me to use pages because I can arrange them easily in the menu (by menu titles as categories etc.). I don't have to erase time record or worry about duplicate content etc.

        I said "similar" because my posts/articles don't go in succession, so in your definition #1 they are technically not blog posts. Dates (when they were written) have no importance in most of what I write.

        Let's say my niche was how to learn a foreign language and I had a blog for that. Then my blog posts would be some study guide, about grammar, expressions etc. and they have no relevance to when they were written. In this case it is much easier to categorize them by the topic and not by dates. They don't have to come in succession or it is not a "diary" either so they are not technically fall under your definition of a blog. But what I notice is that there are many blog articles (using blog formats) that are like the example above. (The only "blog" thing about them is often they come up in succession so the new article comes on top of the homepage or their blog directory).

        So, if I put my question differently, are there any benefits to write articles in succession and make it a blog rather than looking like static pages?

        I can understand that if someone really liked your blog they would come back for a new blog article - but again I can just announce there is a new "article."

        I hope I was able to explain my question more clearly.
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