A very common question when you first start building your own website is what is the difference between a page and a post on WordPress, what sort of content should you use in each, and how should you organize them.
When to Use WordPress Pages And When to Use Posts
You will be using the pages on your WordPress website for the main points you want to make. So if your website is about banking, for example, you might want to have a page about different account type, a page about interest rates and a page about credit cards.
On those pages, you will elaborate general information about the main subject, the content on the page will be long and it must be quality content, because they might not be what first drives traffic to your website, however very likely they’ll be visited once someone is on it.
The pages will be static, so every time you go on them, the same content will be up, although they can also be updated every now and then.
Now your WordPress posts will be different, they will be more specific, they will have more detailed information, and they will be generating a lot of your traffic.
So again using banking as an example, you have your main pages, stated above, now you will write a post about a specific account type, let’s say a savings account where you need $5,000 initial investment.
In this post you will write in depth about the account, you will include every detail possible and give your opinion on whether it is a good account to open or not.
Pages You Must Have
There are 2 pages every website/blog must have, which are the About Me page and the Privacy Policy page.
They are mandatory pages and here is why: the about me page will create and identification of the public with you, sometimes when you’re online it feels like the content is just there, you can really relate to it much as it can feel like it was written for robots to read. However having an about me page will identify yourself to the viewers, they will read the pages and posts and know who is writing it.
The about me page should have relevant information to your niche/audience though. It is important to let people know who you are, as long as it’s relevant to what you’re writing about.
The privacy policy page is a standard page that you can copy from quite a few sources out there, feel free to use my one here. In there you will have general rules and information about the use of cookies and so in the visitors computer. It’s also an essential page as Google takes in consideration whether you have it or not when ranking you.
Home Page
Usually, the best thing you can do on the home page is set it up so all new posts will be displayed there, this helps with SEO, meaning Google likes it. If you’d like to have an introduction and a static home page that’s also fine. Some themes on WordPress will actually allow you to have a static home page with the introduction to your website as well as the latest blog posts below it!
If that’s what you want to do you need to search individually for your theme.
Sidebar
A characteristic pretty much all blog-style websites have is a sidebar, that’s where you will add some widgets like a search box, recent posts, social media links to your website’s profiles and ads.
It’s important to, first of all, not have a sidebar on the Privacy Policy page and the About Me page, as they are part of the website however not really content. Now the widgets you add to your sidebar will depend totally on your niche and how you are organizing your website.
You can use me as an example, at the moment I’ve got two websites: one is YoungSaver.org, where I have all my pages on the top menu, and then on the sidebar I’ve added, first, links to my social media profiles, so people could follow me, then a search box, then my blog posts divided into categories, recent comments so people can see which posts/pages are hot, and lastly an amazon advertisement with products related to my content.
On the other hand, on this website, Starting an Online Business Today, I feel my audience is different and the site configuration should be different too. So I’ve added my main pages on top as well as my About Me page. Not to have too many pages I’ve created a drop-down list for The Good and The Scams, which I will be teaching how to do soon on a new post. And then I added important pages on the sidebar, including the Privacy Policy. A search box and then a little ad to my other website.
I guess what I am trying to say is that the way you configure your website in every way, including you sidebar, will depend on who you are writing for, and that’s why it’s important to do you research through your competition and get some ideas.
Where do I Start?
As I stated before, pages will have the main ideas for your website, while the posts will have more detailed information about a particular characteristic of one of your main ideas. Therefore the first thing you should do in your website is create and add content to all the pages, once that’s done, the foundation of the website is built, now you can start creating posts.
Before you do create posts, it’s good to find categories where you can easily think of topics for the future. Otherwise you will be having heaps of categories with 1 post in each, which is not good. My advice here would be to think of 5 possible categories related to your pages, have a read through your pages again to get the ideas. Then try to think of at least 10 posts you could have that would fit in that category and that you could write about in at least 1,000 words. If you can do that, it’s a good category, if not, rethink.
Keep it Relevant
It may sound obvious, however it’s incredible how many websites out there you see with so much content, however where the pages and posts are each designed for a different niche. If you really want to write about 2 things which are not for the same audience, have 2 websites! Believe me, I once tried having a website focused on 2 different niches and it just didn’t work. It doesn’t work.
If you are thinking about having your website or even if you already have one, you would be aware a domain name costs about $10-$15 per year, so there’s no harm in having 2 domains. And if you don’t know where to host the websites, or if the place where you’re hosting them at the moment charges for an additional domain to be hosted, have a read on My #1 Recommendation, if you have a Premium Account on Wealthy Affiliate you can host as many websites as you need for no extra fees, check it out!
