What is the difference between a creating a folder in your host and creating a new page on wordpress

[Rylynn]

Hi warriors,

I have a technical question to ask.

What is the difference between creating a new page on wordpress, www.mydomain.com/newpage, and creating a new folder, www.mydomain.com/newfolder on this domain?

I ask this because I want to create a squeeze page on my existing domain. I have no idea what is the difference between just making a new page and creating the squeeze page from the wordpress admin panel as compared to uploading files via FTP into a new subfolder.

Your advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Istvan Horvath]

One is real (physical) folder, the other is virtual.
The WP page is a virtual folder: it does NOT exist (=you can not see) on your server.

The original URL of the WP Page is example.com/?page_id=XXX and it's only a htaccess rewroite trick that you see it as a "folder name":
example.com/page-title/

You can make a squeeze page either way.

[Rylynn]

Thanks so much Istvan!

But if there is no difference, then why is everyone doing it the FTP way?

Is it because by FTPing you can like remove everything to make it look like a real squeeze page with no distractions?

[Istvan Horvath]

Originally Posted by Rylynn

But if there is no difference, then why is everyone doing it the FTP way?

Is it because by FTPing you can like remove everything to make it look like a real squeeze page with no distractions?

Most likely: YES.
If you create a WP Page - it has all the usual links/navigation/sidebar etc. and on a squeeze page or a sales page you don't want that.

Now, do you have already a HTML squeeze page file (independently from your WP design/theme)? If yes, you can go and get this tutorial of mine (no optin, just download) to get the best of both worlds.

[Rylynn]

Thanks for the link. I will have a good look at it.

Just to be clear though, if I create a new subfolder on my domain, it will not appear as a page on wordpress right?

If that is the case then would SEO link juice from my domain get "passed on" to that sub folder?

[Istvan Horvath]

No, a physical subfolder will NOT appear as a Page in your WP.

I don't know anything about SEO because I don't believe in it (as it is "sold" around here) but that's what the gooroos say: subdomains get juice from the domain.

[Rylynn]

Logically speaking, if one owns a blog, won't it be best to set up a squeeze page on the blog and on a sub folder as well?

For the blog I could title a page like FREE training, then when the visitor clicks theres a squeeze page. This would cater to my blog visitors.

Then I could create another squeeze page without all the nav links on the blog on a sub folder of my domain. This could be for article marketing or ad swaps etc.

[richrajeevkistoo]

Rylnn

If your current blog has good ranking and PR then you need to worry about transfering PR juice or not.

The easiest way to add your squeezepage is to create a folder like you said, it can be yourdomain.com/squeezepage/

you need to bear in mind that most of the time, if you are in a competitive niche, squeeze pages would not get seo'ed as they have very little content on them. This is why you should leverage your current blog to send traffic to the squeeze.

If you need more help, pm me. I own an outsourcing company.

Rajeev

[Rylynn]

Originally Posted by richrajeevkistoo

Rylnn

If your current blog has good ranking and PR then you need to worry about transfering PR juice or not.

The easiest way to add your squeezepage is to create a folder like you said, it can be yourdomain.com/squeezepage/

you need to bear in mind that most of the time, if you are in a competitive niche, squeeze pages would not get seo'ed as they have very little content on them. This is why you should leverage your current blog to send traffic to the squeeze.

If you need more help, pm me. I own an outsourcing company.

Rajeev

I really appreciate your help, but I can't pm you because of my post count.

Anyway what does owning an outsourcing company got to do with this? lol

[Istvan Horvath]

Originally Posted by Rylynn

Logically speaking, if one owns a blog, won't it be best to set up a squeeze page on the blog and on a sub folder as well?

For the blog I could title a page like FREE training, then when the visitor clicks theres a squeeze page. This would cater to my blog visitors.

Then I could create another squeeze page without all the nav links on the blog on a sub folder of my domain. This could be for article marketing or ad swaps etc.

You are over-complicating it...

You can have as many squeeze pages and/or submit forms on a WP blog as you want.
Now you know at least 2 different ways to do it.

And there is never anything "the best" for everybody... You are the one who knows the best what works for you, for your visitors, for your niche etc.

[Istvan Horvath]

Originally Posted by richrajeevkistoo

I teach people wordpress as well on [...]

I am new here as well..

If new: learn that pimping your own products/services as you did... is not the best way to make friends.

I also "teach" WP - and it doesn't mean that I am fishing here for paying clients. If you want to help - help here, without asking people to PM you (btw, you can NOT use PM until you have 50 posts).

[Rylynn]

Thanks for the replies Istvan. I'm not trying to complicate things, but because I am kinda new to all this I have loads of questions. It's just the way I am .

I had a look at your guide. Just to make sure I'm understanding it right, your guide is teaching how to customize a page (not sub folder) not wordpress using the so that when a visitor clicks on the page on the nav bar he goes straight to the squeeze page without any blog links right?

If that's the case, then why would anyone want to make a subfolder for a squeeze page?

[Istvan Horvath]

Originally Posted by Rylynn

I had a look at your guide. Just to make sure I'm understanding it right, your guide is teaching how to customize a page (not sub folder) not wordpress using the so that when a visitor clicks on the page on the nav bar he goes straight to the squeeze page without any blog links right?

Yes... kinda.
It takes ANY html page (file) and it shows you how to make it into a Page template in WP and how to use that Page template to create a custom (squeeze/whatever) Page in WP.
The page where you downloaded the report has been done with the method presented in the report.

Originally Posted by Rylynn

If that's the case, then why would anyone want to make a subfolder for a squeeze page?

I'd NOT use the method from my own report because:
- I can write HTML without any wysiwyg editor
- I hate the WP Visual editor and its 'smartass' engine that think it knows better what kind of HMTL I wrote...
- I am a control freak, so I write manually my XHTML/CSS stuff.

At the end it comes down to personal preferences. Most people LOVE the WP online theme/template editor. I would ban it because it is not idiot-proof

[Rylynn]

Oh no I mean why would anyone want to create a subfolder if they can just create a page on their blog as the squeeze page. I could just use your guide to create a complete squeeze page look on a new page on my blog. This way it gets more clicks to the page via the blog because visitors can easily see the tab on the nav bar.

Whereas, if you created a subfolder, you mentioned that it would not show up as a page on wordpress. So it has no advantage over a page on wordpress if the wordpress page can create that exact same look. Am I am missing something here?

[Istvan Horvath]

You are, probably, missing the fact that I can put in the menu or leave out from the menu whatever I want... and most people can't. So they will go by that.
Although, using a theme like TwentyTen with custom menu options... should let anybody do it. But I can do it manually, too.

Also, without my guide most people can NOT create a page that looks different than their active theme.

[Rylynn]

Originally Posted by Istvan Horvath

You are, probably, missing the fact that I can put in the menu or leave out from the menu whatever I want... and most people can't. So they will go by that.
Although, using a theme like TwentyTen with custom menu options... should let anybody do it. But I can do it manually, too.

Also, without my guide most people can NOT create a page that looks different than their active theme.

Oh I get it now. Thanks for all your help Istvan.