WordPress has two main content types: pages and posts. At first glance, pages and posts seem to be the same exact things, however, there are a few key differences in their application which will allow you to keep your website organized and your customers engaged.

If you don’t want to read any further than this, posts are for blog and news items, while pages are for static content like your about or contact us pages.

If you’re really interested in how the content types differ or how to add and update posts and pages, read on.

What is a post?

Posts are generally news or informational content entries listed in reverse chronological order on your website’s blog and/or news page. Due to their reverse chronological order, your posts are meant to be timely. Posts are dynamic and constantly changing the content your customers see. Posts can be sorted by category or tag to give your website visitors the ability to find similar content on your website.

Posts are meant to be social and encourage direct interaction between your business and your audience. Website visitors can share your posts on social media, comment on the posts themselves, and can syndicate them to their RSS feed readers. Additionally, posts typically have an author and publish date front and center, allowing your visitors to know who wrote the post and when it was published.

What is a page?

Pages are meant to be static content pages (such as your home page, about page, privacy policy, contact us page, etc.) that are regularly accessed but less regularly updated. While pages can and should be updated, they are meant to be more static on your website. Generally speaking, pages make up the items of your menu. Unlike posts, pages are hierarchical, meaning some pages are parent pages while others can be sorted under those main pages as subpages.

Also, pages don’t include social sharing options, a comment section, or author and date metadata, and they are not included in your website’s RSS feed.

How to add a page or post?

To add a new post, navigate to Posts in the left sidebar menu of your WordPress dashboard.

On the Posts page, select Add New.

Once you’ve created a new post draft, you will want to add your title and any content you want to display on the post. Then navigate to the Publish widget and click Save Draft. Saving a draft will save your post, but it will not be visible to the public. If you are ready to preview your post, click Preview. A new browser tab should open with the preview of your new post. This is helpful as you lay out your content, allowing you to make it look right before making it public. If you are happy with your preview, you can then click the blue Publish button. If you need to make edits to the content, you can make changes in the editor then restart the save-preview-publish process.

There are two main ways to update an existing post. Option one is to navigate to Posts in the left sidebar menu of your dashboard. On the Posts page, click on the post you want to edit. Then make your edits and click the blue Update button.

The second way to edit a post is to login then navigate to the specific post URL using your browser. Once there, you should see Edit Post in your admin bar. After clicking Edit Post, you will be brought to your content editor, where you can again make your edits before clicking the blue Update button.

Note: Posts and pages are added and updated the exact same way, so use the step-by-step guide above to add and update a page as well.

Another note: Your content editor might not look the exact same as ours. We use a combination of Divi Builder and the Classic Editor, however, new WordPress websites use the Gutenberg Editor by default. 

If you’ve gotten this far, drop us a comment below and let us know if what you’re reading here is published using the page or the post content type!