The Difference Between a Page and a Post

While the edit screens for posts and pages are very similar, there are some important differences between them.

Posts

Posts are what you will use most of the time for your blog. When I use the word ‘article’, I mean post. One ‘posts’ an article. Most bloggers refer to their articles as posts. I prefer to call them articles that I have posted, but that’s just me 🙂

• Posts can be categorized.
• Posts can be tagged. (I will soon post an article on tags and categories.)
• Posts are content that gets listed in reverse chronological order. For example, when I publish this article (post), it will show up at the top of the WordPress Archive. When I add a new post, the new article will go to the top of the list and this article will be right under it.
• Posts are archived automatically by WordPress. The link above is a chronological archive of all posts in the Member Only Category.
• Posts are displayed in your blog’s RSS feed.
• Posts have a totally different URL than pages in that they will show the date and perhaps the category (depending on how you have set your Permalinks). A post URL at SYNAPTICI looks like this:
  http://www.synaptici.com/2013/how-to-add-excerpts-to-pages-wordpress-plugin/

By the way, when I use the word ‘article’, I mean post. One ‘posts’ an article. Most bloggers refer to their articles as posts. I prefer to call them articles that I have posted, but that’s just me 🙂

Pages

Pages are what you use for static content. Your About page, your Contact page, your Testimonials page, are all examples of when to use a page, not a post.

• Pages can not be categorized.
• Pages can not be tagged.
• Pages are not archived in the same way that posts are. 
• Pages are not displayed in your blog’s RSS feed.
• Pages can use the custom template feature. (This is an advanced concept that I will write about later.)
• By default, pages do not have the excerpt feature. If necessary, you can get around this by using a plugin. I have written about this here: How To Add Excerpts To Pages – WordPress Plugin
• Page URL’s do not include dates. A page URL at SYNAPTICI looks like this:
  http://www.synaptici.com/contact/

 

How many of each can I have?

There are no limitations to the number of posts or pages you can publish.

 

What about comments?

WordPress allows you to have comment feeds for posts and pages. By default, I usually turn comments off for pages. Why would I want comments on my contact page? On the other hand, I may want to leave comments open on an FAQ page.

Hmmm … how to do it?

This needs a solution … guess I will have to post an article on that as well! 😉