Do you want to learn about the difference between posts and pages?
By default, WordPress comes with two different content types, posts and pages. Although they look similar in the WordPress dashboard, they serve different purposes for your website.
In this article, we will explain the difference between posts vs. pages in WordPress.
What are Posts in WordPress?
Posts are used to create blog content, articles, and other content listed on your blog page. They’re shown in reverse chronological order, so that the newest content is shown at the top of the list.
If you are using WordPress as a blog, then you’ll likely end up using posts for the majority of your website content.
You can add and edit your WordPress posts by clicking the ‘Posts’ menu option in your dashboard. Here is what the WordPress post editor looks like.
Since posts are listed with the newest posts at the top, your posts are meant to be timely. Your older posts are archived based on month and year.
As the posts get older, your visitors will have to dig deeper to find them. You have the option to organize your posts based on categories and tags.
If you have a lot of content, then you can add a search form to make it easy for your visitors to find the content they’re looking for. For more details, see our guide on how to create a custom WordPress search form.
You can easily share your new WordPress blog posts with your readers to help you get more traffic. For example, you can create an email newsletter, send automatic RSS feed emails, send push notification messages, and more.
For more details, see our guide on how to share your blog posts with readers.
The timely nature of blog posts makes them great for sharing on social media too. You can use social media plugins to allow your users to share your posts across popular social media networks.
Blog posts also encourage conversation. They have a built-in comment feature that allows users to comment on a particular topic. By default, comments, pingbacks, and trackbacks are enabled.
After the main article content, there’s the comments section. Usually, comments will be disabled on your WordPress pages.
You can go to Settings » Discussion to turn off comments on older posts if you like.
WordPress posts also display post metadata. This is the information listed after the blog post title on individual posts and your blog page.
It usually shows the date, author name, categories, tags, and more. You can completely customize your post meta information. For more details, see our guide on how to display blog post meta data in WordPress themes.
Now that you know what WordPress posts are, let’s take a look at pages and how they’re different.
What are Pages in WordPress?
Pages are static “one-off” type content like your about page, privacy policy, contact page, and more. While the WordPress database stores the published date of the page, pages are timeless entities.
For example, your about page is not supposed to expire. Sure, you can go back and make updates to it, but chances are you will not have about page 2012, about page 2013, etc.
We have all kinds of WordPress pages on WPBeginner, like our start here page, about us, contact us, and custom pages like our free business tools page.
You can add and edit pages in your WordPress admin panel by clicking on the ‘Pages’ menu option.
Here’s what the page editor screen looks like.
Pages aren’t meant to be social, so they usually don’t have social sharing buttons. For example, you probably don’t want visitors to share your privacy policy page on Twitter.
Pages also don’t include comments. You don’t want users to comment on your contact page or your terms of service page. There is an option to enable comments. However, it’s disabled by default for your WordPress pages.
Unlike posts, pages are hierarchical by nature. For example, you can have subpages or child pages within a page.
You can easily turn a page into a subpage by choosing a parent page from the ‘Page Attributes’ section when editing a page.
Plus, you can create completely custom WordPress pages with the help of a drag and drop WordPress page builder plugin.
This lets you use different page layouts than the default option provided by WordPress.
For more details, see our guide on how to create a custom page in WordPress.
WordPress Pages vs. Posts (Key Differences)
To summarize, these are the key differences between posts vs pages in WordPress.
- Posts are timely, and pages are timeless.
- Posts are meant to be shared on social media, and pages are not.
- Posts are organized using categories and tags, while pages are hierarchical and organized as child and parent pages.
- Posts have an author and published date, while pages do not.
The differences we listed above may have exceptions. You can use WordPress plugins to extend the functionality of both content types.
Despite these differences, there are some similarities between pages and posts in WordPress.
First, they are both used for publishing content. You can add text, images, videos, forms, and more, to both posts and pages. There is support for featured images in both pages and posts.
You can build a WordPress website without ever using posts or the blogging features of WordPress. You can also make a small business website with pages and a separate blog section for your news, announcements, and other articles.
Posts vs Pages: Frequently Asked Questions
Following are some of the most frequently asked questions we’ve heard from our users about posts vs. pages and how to properly use them in WordPress.
1. How many posts and/or pages can I have?
You can have as many posts and/or pages that you want. There is no limit on the number of posts or pages that can be created.
2. Are there any SEO advantages to one or the other?
Search engines like content to be organized. Timeless and evergreen content is important. However, there is a lot of priority given to content published recently.
In short, there may be a difference, but as a beginner, you do not need to worry about it. Focus on making your site organized for your visitors. To learn more, see our ultimate WordPress SEO guide for beginners.
3. Which pages should I create on my website or blog?
It depends on what kind of blog or website you are making. However, you may want to see our list of important pages for all websites.
4. Can I switch posts to pages and vice versa?
Many beginners accidentally add content to posts when they actually want to create pages. Similarly, some new bloggers may end up saving blog posts as pages.
If you’re just starting out, then you can easily fix that by using the post type switcher plugin. For more details, see our guide on how to switch post types in WordPress.
5. Are there other content types in WordPress besides posts and pages?
Yes, there are. These other default content types include attachments, revisions, and navigation menus. However, they aren’t used the same as posts and pages.
WordPress also allows you to create your own custom post types. This feature is used by plugins to create additional content types in WordPress.
For example, if you run an online store using WooCommerce, then you’ll see a ‘Products’ post type in your WordPress admin area.
For more details, see our guide on how to create custom post types in WordPress.
We hope this article helped you learn the difference between pages and posts in WordPress and how to use them. You may also want to see our guide on how to choose the best WordPress hosting and our best AI chatbots software for your website.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Tuomas says
Hello,
Thank you for this guide. I have made such “mistake” on our business website that I have created my blog archive just as a normal page and same with our blog posts: pages instead of posts. As changing this would demand a lot of work, I’m probably not going to change this. Would you happen to know, how I can create an RSS feed for pages instead of posts?
WPBeginner Support says
To make swapping easier, you may want to try the recommended plugin in our article below:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-convert-post-types/
We do not have a recommended method for RSS for pages at the moment.
Admin
Lalit Singh Chauhan says
Great Information.
I am using newspaper theme and for some reason my Page posts are totally different than the default blog posts template. What could be the reason?
WPBeginner Support says
Your theme may have specific styling for the different pages/posts. You would want to check with your theme’s support to see if that is the reason.
Admin
Martin says
Great article. I just started out and have the latest update.
But I don’t seem to get it working as I want.
WPBeginner Support says
For site specific support we would ask that you reach out to us using our contact form as your question would require asking additional information that would not fit our comment policy.
Thanks
Admin
Vinit says
How can I change footer on Post? Footer on my website pages is coming different then the Blog Post. Please help.
WPBeginner Support says
That would be determined by your specific theme. If you reach out to your theme’s support they should be able to assist.
Admin
Melchi says
Can I use pages as a posts.
And also can I use pages as a blog post.
WPBeginner Support says
While you can, using posts would give you more tools for your content to be found by your users.
Admin
Nicolas says
What about where a page is generally the same but your content may vary 100s of times (Like recipees or products in a shop like Amazon for example) It’s not a static page and yet it’s not a post, it’s something in between
WPBeginner Support says
It sounds like you mean custom post types which we cover in our glossary here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/glossary/post-types/
Admin
Spenser says
Great stuff. Just starting out with WP and this is exactly what I need. Many useful links to other, equally useful, posts (or are they pages? – only kidding). Really useful site – I have emailed myself the URL. Many thanks – please keep up the good work.
PS – never left comments on a WP site before – so interested in seeing how this works.
WPBeginner Support says
Glad you like our content
Admin
dimarifi says
Thanks for this helpfull guid.
But I have a question, for exemple this webpage : https://www.wpbeginner.com/category/beginners-guide/ its post or page?
Thanks
WPBeginner Support says
That is an archive page, we’ve linked directly to the category and it is showing the archive for beginners guides which is styled the same as our posts page.
Admin
Acha Mercy says
thanks for clarifying me on this
WPBeginner Support says
You’re welcome
Admin
Mjkoroma says
Hello, will I be able to use a website as both a blog and a ‘website’ simultaneously?
I mean, if I would use pages and posts on a website, simultaneously…
WPBeginner Support says
You can certainly use those features together. We have an article that should help clear up some confusion here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/what-is-a-blog-and-how-is-it-different-from-a-website-explained/
Admin
Billy says
PRODUCT PAGE: POSTS OR PAGES?
WPBeginner Support says
That varies from one plugin to another, it is normally a page listing a custom post type if I understand what you’re asking correctly.
Admin
joljols says
I was wondering if the articles on wpbeginner are posts or pages as they have a page-like url but most features of a blog post. Also, many of the articles are often updated over time to keep the contents of the article up to date. How do you deal with those updates and making sure readers know about them? The reason I am asking is because I am also writing a list of articles with coding tips/tutorials and am wondering if I should write them as posts or pages on my wordpress site. I hope you can give me advice!
WPBeginner Support says
Hi,
We use posts to publish most of our articles.
Admin
Charles says
Doesn’t that mean, we should always use Pages if we want a unique design for the mega content we are going to create?
Otherwise, post seems to have a lot of limitation of how the overall content visual to be structured.
Stephanie says
I have to translate my content across multiple languages – so my current blog is being housed in pages vs posts. If I move my blog over to posts – can i translate that out?
WPBeginner Support says
Hi Stephanie,
You can translate your WordPress content by using a WordPress multilingual plugin.
Admin
Bruce says
Hello and thanks for the great site. I’ve been running some WP sites for a few years and I always come to WPBeginner for quality and concise information.
The sites I’ve built have been fine with static pages but one client (my wife) wants to add a blog to her martial arts site.
How do we make something that looks like the blog page on this site?
I understand how to create the post, and can add it to a menu, but do not know how to make a page with the chronological list of posts.
Is this a feature of the specific theme? I am using Genesis and Responsive.
Thanks again, I’m sure there’s an obvious solution that I’m overlooking.
WPBeginner Support says
Hi Bruce,
Please see our guide on how to create a separate page for blog posts in WordPress.
Admin
Cherian says
I’m not sure i was doing wrong. Please help.
On my website, im publishing the same topic as Post and page (So two URLs has same topic, 1 page and 1 posts).
Any issues on that? or do i need to remove one of them? Thanks.
Denish Callos says
Hi,
I have been using wordpress for web development for a while now. I am starting a new tutorial site in wordpress. I am confused in writing tutorials as pages or posts. Number of tutorials wil be huge. So should i publish tutorials as posts or pages.(please suggest me on this). And how do i include category name in permalink of pages
Suggestions will be highly appreciated.
Many Thanks
Riana says
I have a smiliar question. Waiting for this to be answered.
Seems like no one has answered you yet so I’ll make my own decision based on the article.
I would like each of my tutorials to be shared on social media and accept comments which would lead me to posts instead of pages.
However, my tutorials cover many different themes and I feel like having a category list to the side with 5 billion different links will be a bit much. I also don’t like that they will be time and date stamped because they really aren’t blog posts but permanent pages on my site that most likely will never be changed or replicated.
I guess I’ll just suck it up and go with posts.
Pogo says
I say definitely use posts, and I’m almost certain that you can fill pages with certain types of posts to categorize them using the hierarchy of pages.
Zachary says
Use a custom post type. Setup a custom post type for your Tutorials, specifically. That is the best setup, as it is clean and keeps your blog posts sepearate. Pages are absolutely inferior in this use case, and most use cases. A good plugin for this is CPT UI (free). That mixed with Advanced Custom Fields offers an incredible amount of customization and efficiency if used correctly.
As for the many category issue. I recommend reading some guides on categories/tags. Ideally, your categories should be few and broad, while your tags are many. With ACF you can create new “category” type lists if needed, often not needed though.
You can also depend on sub-categories a lot. Having very broad parent categories, with their many child categories beneath. Show the user only the child categories for their selected main category and they won’t have a large list to deal with. When they see the initial tutorial page you show them the parent categories only. There are many ways of achieving a user-friendly design through this.
Susan Cunningham says
I’m building a website with more or less timeless content. Definitely not a blog with dates, etc.. So I could dispense with Posts altogether? I have put Pages on the top running menu bar. Each Page will have a bunch of sub-pages and those can have sub-pages (grandchild pages?). Which will also dictate the URLs, right? From the reply to the previous question, I gather the downside to that is that Pages can’t be labeled with categories? Downside of using Posts,however, is that they can’t be grouped and sub-grouped under a Page?
In the past few days I’ve been wondering if those general content descriptors on the menu bar should be categories instead of Pages. This reply to the previous question seems to point in that direction: “Another way to do that is by creating templates for your categories.” But no … I’m going to have a mammoth informational/magazine type site and that would extremely limit the number of categories, seems to me. Maybe that wouldn’t matter if the number of tags was kept limited, however.
I’m not totally new to WordPress, since I use Wordpess.com for a simple personal portfolio type site. So category name(s) will appear–usually on the top left corner–of a post. But they won’t appear at all on a Page?
Whew! Sorry to sound so confusing. (Well, obviously, I’m confused!). Can you just answer the first question: Can I dispense with Posts altogether? What are the disadvantages and advantages of that?
I can’t be the first person with this question in mind. Thanks!
WPBeginner Support says
Hi Susan,
You can dispense posts altogether and use pages with child pages to organize your site’s structure. You can add categories and tags to pages, if you want.
Admin
Terry Yarham says
From my static home page, there are blog post categories in the menu across the top. Can I pin content to the top of the category archive page? Regular pinning isn’t working for that.
I have a lifestyle blog for my city. When someone goes to a category from the top menu (food, drink, shopping, etc.) I want them to see a short description (that will always be at the top), then see the blog posts that fall into that category as they scroll down.
Is there a way to do that? I’m using the Bento theme.
I’m game to change the categories across the top to pages so the content I want to always be seen would be there, but would I be able to get the posts to show up underneath?
Thanks for any help I can get.
WPBeginner Support says
Hey Terry,
There are multiple ways to do that. For example, you can add the content you want to be displayed as category descriptions. Another way to do that is by creating templates for your categories. You can add them by simply naming the file category-{category-slug}.php like category-news.php.
Admin
Julie Gilmer says
I’m trying to organize a blog of my trips with pages for each day and pictures associated with those pages. Is this possible in WordPress?
WPBeginner Support says
Hey Julie,
Yes. In fact many travel writers use WordPress to share their journeys with photos, galleries, videos, text, and more. Check out our guide on how to start a WordPress blog for step by step instructions on how to get started.
Admin
Mathew says
Thanks I have just been cleared!
Civali says
I confess I´m pretty confused about it. I actually don´t know deal with categories in a post.
WPBeginner Support says
Hi Civali,
Please take a look at our guide on the difference between categories and tags. It will help you understand how to use categories for your posts.
Admin
Bastian says
I wonder how to organize content like episode guides for a TV show (that has been broadcasted years ago) with a kind of scientific interpretation of it. I think it’s very much timeless content, since it’s no actual show anymore and I don’t want to have comments on it. It should be the definitive article on the net to the subject.
So, should I write my big episode guide with plot and interpretation as a page and just put a post on my blog like “new episode guide for show – episode x season y” with a link to the page?
I have to admit it was hard to decide against a wiki because I don’t think I have timely content. But a blog seems to be more like a reflection of my personal opinion and more conversational and entertaining than a “dry” wiki text.
WPBeginner Support says
Hi Bastian,
There are plenty of ways to organize this in WordPress. For example, you can Use categories for each season, and create a new post for each episode in that season.
You can use tags to assign different characters, topics, and themes that came up during that particular episode.
You can also create a custom post type.
Admin
Bastian says
Thank you very much. Sounds interesting.
Somehow I think it just doesn’t feel right to use pages for articles. All the fine features like widgets, sharing etc. have to be added through plugins while posts have it all embedded. ATM I tend to use posts, because it just feels right. It feels like the way, WordPress should be used.
What I like on Pages in a strange way is, that all these distractions like widgets, sharing etc. are missing. The content area is wider (in my current theme), so for now: I start using posts but not sure if it will always stay this way. I will just have an open mind and keep experimenting. Time will tell.