For someone starting out with WordPress, the difference between a page and a post isn’t always apparent. They are different but they are the same. When WordPress first started, there were only Posts. WordPress 1.5 introduced pages, way back in 2005. This allowed a blog website to have web pages that were not part of the blog posts. For example, an About page, Contact Us page, Privacy Policy, etc.
The way the feature of pages was added was by creating a concept of post type. A page is a Post with a post type of Page, and a post is a Post with a post type of Post. Today there are many post types that help separate the type of content to be shown on a WordPress website, such as Product when the WooCommerce plugin has been added.
So, a Page is just a type of Post. At first glance, a Page and a Post have a lot of similarities and look the same. The title and editing the content is the same and they both create a web page to be viewed in a web browser. However, the purposes of Pages and a Posts are different.
Page #
A page is used for static content with a fixed purpose and location on the website. Generally, a website will have the Home page as the first web page on a website, with additional web pages accessed from a menu. Common web pages include About Us, Company History, and Contact Us.
A web page may lead to other web pages, such as a page for an individual service that sits under a Services page or under the Home page. A page may display a list of Posts, but it is rare for a list of Pages to be shown.
Post #
Posts are usually used when creating content that is shown in a list, such as a blog or article. It could be information about an item, an event, an opinion, or thought of the day.
Unlike a page, a post is not normally found through a menu or some other type of navigation tool. Instead, posts are organised with taxonomies and displayed in a list. A list may show all posts, or a subset of posts based on a taxonomy.
Taxonomies #
A WordPress website will normally have taxonomies enabled for Posts but disabled for Pages. There are two types of taxonomies that can be used with a post type, Categories and Tags.
Category #
Categories are used to group your posts into general topics, like a table of contents. A post must have at least one category. If a category is not assigned, WordPress will automatically assign it to the default category, usually called Uncategorized. Uncategorized can be renamed to something different, such as Other, Miscellaneous, or Uncategorised.
Categories are hierarchical, so you can have sub-categories. Sub-categories can be useful if the categories need to be broken down further.
A post can have more than one category assigned, although assigning multiple categories is not typical. Normally, a post should belong in a single category. If a more than one category is assigned, one category is assigned as the primary category. Assigning a parent category and a sub-category a common use of assigning multiple categories, but even in this scenario it is normally not necessary.
Tag #
Tags are used to identify specific details in a post that can identify posts based on the tag. Tags are like an index in a book, where you can find any post relating to that tag.
Tags are completely optional. A post doesn’t have to be assigned to a tag, but it can be assigned to any number of tags.
Example of Categories and Tags #
Brown Signs uses both categories and tags for the places it lists. Categories are used for the types of places, such as Historical, Lookout, Walking Trail, and Museum. Tags are used for attributes of the place, such as waterfall, swimming, camping, national park, and fishing.
