Wordpress Pages vs Posts

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I searched previous threads thinking that someone MUST have asked this already but couldn't find anything so my apologies if I am repeating a question.

I want to know the reasoning behind using posts over pages in a WP blog.

For something like the 100buckschallenge where we are following chronologically someone's journey I can see where posts would be better. However for a regular website where you want to have easily navigatable pages posts wouldn't really work, right ? You need to scroll through page after page of post to go through the archives.

I want to create a site about language learning. There is nothing chronological about it, so I would think pages are the way to go. But maybe there are SEO reasons as to why people use posts over pages and if so I would like to know this info

Thank you all in advance
#search engine optimization #pages #posts #wordpress
  • Yeah I would say pages will work better in your case. Pages are good because the link and anchor text will always be on every page passing some of your PR to the internal pages. For posts, ifs its an often updated blog then they get moved further and further back from the link juice.
  • Anyone with a modicum of design sense will use pages over posts for creating a website.
    The only people that don't are bloggers and fools who are far too used to thinking that a page that takes 18 minutes to scroll through is a good sales page.
    • [2] replies
    • I'm apparently one of the "fools" you speak of :-) And I can assure you I've got more than a "modicum" of design sense...

      I use "Posts" for product pages and "Pages" for static pages (about, contact, privacy, etc). As best I can tell, this was the original intent when WordPress was created.

      Here are two facts you might want to consider (or not...depending on how much broader your brush strokes can be)

      1) Pages are not included in your default rss feed

      2) Pages have no excerpt field
      • [ 2 ] Thanks
      • [3] replies
    • Lot of us fools out ther it appears. We must all be doing very badly in the SERP's....

      • [1] reply
  • You can have a post as a 'sticky' which stays on the frontpage. Also, you can limit the number of posts that appear on the frontpage to give it a 'static' page look and feel. I think its Settings > Writing or Reading.
  • Hi busoppreviews, I can appreciate your questions on the merits of posts vs pages. They are valid and they get asked a lot.

    There are a few things in your last post that perhaps miss the true power you have available to you in a WordPress site. For example, there are more than a few ways to manage WordPress to do just about anything you want it to do, including using posts for single pages, where every post has a corresponding link to it, and a whole host of other things that are pretty incredible considering the functionality is either a slight configuration option or a full featured, and in most cases, freely available, plug-in.

    The "Sticky" post option is one way to gain a bit of control over presentation. There are numerous others. The beauty of WordPress is that its maleable to a variety of needs. It can used for everything from a chronologically ordered blog, to a full featured CMS that you wouldn't be able to tell apart from any static website that doesn't look or function like a blog at all.

    If you want a place to start your journey to find out how much further you can take WordPress (from a simple chronological blog listing app), the folks over at woothemes have some pretty incredible examples...
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    • If you are using wp and make use of tags or categories to organize content, a blog based cms can do alright, but in my opinion is not optimal. Make a menu out of your tags or cats to simulate the traditional site structure you'll be ok.

      You are 100% correct that for an info site you don't want the traditional blog chronological bs.

      I don't like fighting with a blog cms to get shaped into a traditional site, so I'd prefer to just build a traditional site with another CMS more suited to building a traditional info site than WP or use static pages made with your favorite wysiwyg editor.

      Some reading for you that may raise and or answer some questions you should be thinking about:
      1. Explains why not to use the trad blog format. Touches on your concerns and maybe a few more
      SBI! - Blog or Build?

      2. Great reads on organizing a site from people that know what they are doing
      Information Architecture for the Small Site - part 1
      Information Architecture for the Small Site - part 2
      Putting information architecture into practice

      Hope those help.
      • [ 2 ] Thanks
  • OK I just wanted to say I found the widget I wanted. It's called "Category Posts" and also another one called "List Category Posts".

    Category Posts allows multiple widgets, whereas List Category Posts only has 1. However the nice thing about List Category Posts is that it allows you to select ascending or descending order for posts on the list whereas Category Posts only displays post in date order backwards. I need wanted features from both but I guess I can't have my cake and eat it. At least not for free anyways

    I hope others find this widget as useful as I will
    • [1] reply
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    Wordpress Pages vs Posts

    I searched previous threads thinking that someone MUST have asked this already but couldn't find anything so my apologies if I am repeating a question. I want to know the reasoning behind using posts over pages in a WP blog.