One of the most basic questions I get asked by new WordPress users is the difference between pages and posts. While it seems simple to me, this is a concept unique to WordPress websites that many people won’t immediately grasp.
Pages
When WordPress first began, the focus was not on pages. The “blog” was the main focus, and most were not websites in the traditional sense. Eventually, WordPress “blogs” began to turn into personal websites and then into business websites. This required more of an emphasis on pages. Pages contain the static information on your site. Things such as About Us, Contact Us, Our Services, and Resources. The number of pages often remains more or less the same throughout the life of your website. A page is something that would be linked in your main navigation bar. You can edit pages to change the information they contain.
Posts are a great way to add search engine friendly text to your website.
Elsie Gilmore, Owner – Solid Red Studios
Posts
If your website contains a blog or a “Latest News” section, you might need to utilize the posts feature. Posts are a great way to add search engine friendly text to your website. Posts will accumulate on your site, increasing in number as you add more. They will generally be displayed in chronological order with the newest one displayed first. When you set up your WordPress site, you’ll get to pick which page is used to show posts. However, you will never have to update that page. It is simply a place where the posts will be shown. The WordPress software will automatically format and arrange them on the page in the appropriate way. Each time you have a new piece of news or blog to write, you will create a new post with that information.
Posts also allow you to add categories and tags. This helps site visitors find the information they are looking for. You can also allow comments on your posts, which increases visitor interaction and allows you to answer questions they may have about your post.
Conclusion
I hope that cleared up the difference between pages and posts. Pages are the relatively static content on your site and posts are continually added to update your blog or latest news section and increase your search engine optimization.