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Wordpress Websites

by goldome77
21 replies
Somewhat new to making wordpress websites. My question is this: Is it better to make your various website pages as posts or as pages, and what would be the benefit or detriment of doing it each way.
#websites #wordpress
  • Profile picture of the author cjed2061
    I make any subsequent content as posts. That way if you comment on any other blogs that have commentluv or keywordluv enabled you will get a back link to your post. If you did pages you wouldn't get this.
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  • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
    There is no general rule that would fit every site/blog.

    It always depends on the structure and goals of your OWN site.

    Pages are considered "static", i.e. they are not part of the chronological stream of the posts, they don't have RSS feeds by default, and the common sense agreement about them is to be used for sites that will not get updated often - or for 'page-lik' content, e.g. About, Contact etc.

    Posts have feeds and they ping the update services, so the web (=search engines, certain social sites) get notified when you have a new post. Posts can be organized in categories and sub-categories.
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  • Profile picture of the author WilliamL
    Fact is: The importance for Google is much higher for pages: But in most cases you should do blog posts because you can't get a good navigations for your blog if you don't do posts. But if you only have around 4-5 posts, I would create pages.
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    • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
      Originally Posted by WilliamL View Post

      Fact is: The importance for Google is much higher for pages:
      And the proof for that fact is...?

      Originally Posted by WilliamL View Post

      But in most cases you should do blog posts because you can't get a good navigations for your blog if you don't do posts.
      Same question as above.

      And please, show me how do I get "good navigation" by making posts.
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    • Profile picture of the author VegasGreg
      Originally Posted by WilliamL View Post

      Fact is: The importance for Google is much higher for pages: But in most cases you should do blog posts because you can't get a good navigations for your blog if you don't do posts. But if you only have around 4-5 posts, I would create pages.
      Yet another 100% NOT true post.

      You can structure WP any way you want and that would determine your "good navigation", no matter if it is posts or pages.

      In Google's eyes, a post and a page are basically the same thing and are stand alone urls. Within WP and the site structure, posts and pages act slightly different.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mrs S
    I'd go with posts simply because they're added to your RSS feed which your readers can use to stay updated but you can also submit to various directories. I use pages for info like sitemaps and contact pages.

    Whichever you choose sit and map out your site structure before you start building.
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    • Profile picture of the author goldome77
      Thanks to all for all the info.
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  • Profile picture of the author webdango
    I do the Welcome, About, Contact, Privacy and Terms as pages.

    I do the rest as posts, and the main reasin I do so is beacuse I can assign categories and tags to posts (you can't to pages unless you get a plug in). What this does is give me the opportunity to do additional internal keyword links.....
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  • Profile picture of the author Quentin
    There is no hard and fast method. If you have a large site then better to go CMS and do pages with posts as backup. Same for single product sales however if you are driving traffic to a site then go all posts.

    Sample:

    Selling headsets Australian Supplier Of Wireless Headsets Cordless Phones and Telephone accessories
    This blog is driving traffic to the main shopping cart.

    Selling Software MP3 Sound Stream Software Streaming Audio made Easy is a cms with incorporated blog for traffic. The whole thing is wordpress.

    Selling Membership.
    How to set up your own online Business Internet Marketing Course is nearly all pages of content for members with a traffic blog. Again all wordpress.

    So as you can see lots of different configurations.

    Quentin
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  • Profile picture of the author digitalpointing
    For Google, I think both, pages and posts are same. But, when considering our comforts, I think adding posts is a better option. Well, what I do is :- I firstly create 4-5 pages for my WP site. And then I do some content writing on them. And then only I add posts - I add them daily - So, in my WP sites, there would be just 4-5 pages, and the rest of them will be posts!
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    • Profile picture of the author goldome77
      A number of things are abundantly clear from the responses I have received. The first is that there are a lot of intelligent and hard working warriors here with an abundance of great ideas. The second is that everyone is quite generous with their time and with sharing what they know and helping those (like me) looking to improve their marketing skills and their websites. Thanks to all.

      What I am trying to achieve is something similar to what Quentin (and I am sure most of you all) has done in the wireless headset website.

      In the situation your website is static, for the sale of products or affiliate marketing, how do keep the content fresh so that you get a fresh look from google and the spiders? I read somewhere that you can use the Unique Article Wizard plugin. If you use the plugin and the articles end up in the recent posts widget in the sidebar, won't that mess up the posts we are already using for our products, such as in Quentin's example website.

      It sounds like I need to take a course or two, or maybe you all can just kind of point me in the right direction.
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  • Profile picture of the author SageSound
    Google's goal and your goal with your web site SHOULD be one and the same: to deliver a useful and informative experience to your site visitors.

    I have no hard evidence, except one very simple observation: I read where Google is now factoring your "bounce rate" metrics into their site evaluations. This is a useful metric because it tells them how useful visitors find your site. If 99% of your visitors "bounce off" in under 10 seconds, that's not a good indicator. However, if 50% stick around for a few minutes and view material there, that is a much better indicator.

    So the question is NOT "how do keep the content fresh so that you get a fresh look from google and the spiders?" but "how do I deliver content that my visitors are going to find engaging and informative?"

    It does not matter whether it's on a Post or a Page or a video or anything else in particular. If they bounce off in a few seconds, that says they're not finding the site engaging. The spiders don't give a crap. Google wants to send visitors to sites that other people find MORE engaging, not less engaging.

    Make your HUMAN visitors happy, the rest will follow.
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    • Profile picture of the author Spot the Ball
      I have recently made my post pages allow 30 posts, what this has done is mean I am now ranking for a lot of keywords on my main domain page as well as individual posts.

      Think about it, my main page has loads of LSI content with so many posts.

      It might not look to pretty but in the eyes of a viewer it is also far easier to scan a lot of posts in seconds and get what they want .. fast.
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  • Profile picture of the author GeorgR.
    I have my standard pages like contact us, terms, privacy, maybe a gallery, and the rest is "normal" posts. to be honest, i don't think there is such a big difference. You can always set a post as "static" also.

    I also agree with SageSound...its more whats IN the package and not how it looks on the outside!
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  • Profile picture of the author dwatrous
    The way I think about this is
    Pages are for static content
    Posts are for timely content

    A privacy policy is static, or timeless. It doesn't have anything to do with TODAY or three weeks ago. It's as relevant and necessary today as ever and it rarely (if ever) changes. Privacy policy should be a page.

    An on topic post on your blog is likely part of the stream of ideas that make up your site. You want people to see this today in their feed. You might also change your mind in the future and so another more recent post can replace or modify or update your opinion. Time is important.

    As far as there being a difference to Google, that's a bit tricky. If you're using permalinks properly, then Google doesn't have any way of knowing whether it's a blog or a post, unless they check for it in the feed. I think that's a bit of a red herring.

    Some themes allow for custom columns and CSS on pages, but not posts. If you want a sqeeze page, or sales page or something special and your theme supports that on a page and not a post, then use a page. But I think you'll see that if you have special requirements it's probably not timely and will be more static on your site.
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    • Profile picture of the author areaK
      Originally Posted by dwatrous View Post

      The way I think about this is
      Pages are for static content
      Posts are for timely content

      A privacy policy is static, or timeless. It doesn't have anything to do with TODAY or three weeks ago. It's as relevant and necessary today as ever and it rarely (if ever) changes. Privacy policy should be a page.

      An on topic post on your blog is likely part of the stream of ideas that make up your site. You want people to see this today in their feed. You might also change your mind in the future and so another more recent post can replace or modify or update your opinion. Time is important.

      As far as there being a difference to Google, that's a bit tricky. If you're using permalinks properly, then Google doesn't have any way of knowing whether it's a blog or a post, unless they check for it in the feed. I think that's a bit of a red herring.

      Some themes allow for custom columns and CSS on pages, but not posts. If you want a sqeeze page, or sales page or something special and your theme supports that on a page and not a post, then use a page. But I think you'll see that if you have special requirements it's probably not timely and will be more static on your site.
      Pretty much agreed.

      Depends and varies! I generally have both. I usually have a few pages and also a number of posts but they each serve their own purpose.

      Build whatever fits the purpose of the content...should it be a page or should it be a post. I.e., if you are putting up an Amazon store on one page then obviously it's best served as a page to your site but if you are writing an article, it is best served as a post.
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  • Profile picture of the author Anon7
    If you're using permalinks properly, then Google doesn't have any way of knowing whether it's a blog or a post, unless they check for it in the feed. I think that's a bit of a red herring.
    I use the RSS Includes Pages plugin to get my pages to show up in the RSS feed. Something worth considering for those that may want to use pages for certain content that you want to display in the feed.

    -Jack
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  • Profile picture of the author carterstory
    goldome.. can you clarify what you are trying to do? That may help us answer.

    To re-itterate everyone else..
    Posts: your content.. your daily / weekly / updating content
    pages: static content that isn't an "update".. about me / links / capture page.. etc.
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    • Profile picture of the author goldome77
      Originally Posted by carterstory View Post

      goldome.. can you clarify what you are trying to do? That may help us answer.

      To re-itterate everyone else..
      Posts: your content.. your daily / weekly / updating content
      pages: static content that isn't an "update".. about me / links / capture page.. etc.
      Thanks all for the information. Here is what I am trying to accomplish.

      I am building wordpress websites for the sale of amazon or other products. Each of my website product pages is built around and optimized for a particular keyword, such as green widgets. On that page I am listing products for sale through Amazon, either using plugins or iframe type boxes. There may be several pages with different products (different keywords). The website is not updated regularly.

      What I have tried to do in order to keep the content on the website fresh, is to use the Unique Article Wizard plugin which brings in fresh, related articles. Obviously, these come in as posts and end up in the recent posts widget in the sidebar. I also need to have some posts in order to have an active RSS feed which I can submit to the aggregators etc. to help with seo and traffic.

      What I want to do is not use the UAW plugin and articles. I am finding that when I use the UAW articles, it screws up the RSS feed validity. I get error messages indicating that the RSS is not valid with reference to what looks like script or content in some of the articles. So, I would ultimately like to keep my website current with fresh content, have validated RSS feeds and display products for sale. Does all that make sense?

      There is so much advice, instructions etc out there that I may have embarked in the wrong direction. Any ideas?
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  • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
    I think you're missing the big picture. It does not really matter much how you use WP if nobody sees it. The person with the best links wins. Hands down. Quickly generate the content and get busy building your link portfolio. If you don't, you won't rank and you won't make any $$$.

    TomG.
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  • Profile picture of the author n7 Studios
    Decide on your site's structure i.e. the sections you'd like, how visitors will access the information (through navigation, sidebar widgets etc).

    Then take a read on Posts vs Pages on Wordpress, which provides a useful explanation of the differences:
    Post vs. Page Support -- WordPress.com

    Your site structure and information architecture will determine whether you use Pages or Posts for any given part of your web site.

    For example, if I need certain information to be accessible in the RSS feed, I would look to use Posts. Likewise, if I need certain information that is static, I would look to use Pages.
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