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WordPress for Beginners Blog Series Part 2-2: Posting (Pages vs. Posts)

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Welcome back to the WordPress for Beginners blog series by Bethany Opp Web Studio located in Rogers, Arkansas. I hope that you’ve been able to follow along as we go through the basics of WordPress! If you’ve not been able to read past posts, here’s a quick run down…

Week 1: Part 1 The Software – WordPress explained

Week 2: Part 2-1 The Settings – Breakdown of basic settings for your WordPress website

(Today) Week 3:  Part 2-2  Posting – The difference between pages vs. posts

 

WordPress for Beginners Blog Series by Bethany Opp Web Studio Part 2-2 Image

WordPress Pages and Posts

I think one of the most confusing things as far as basic WordPress skills goes – is the difference between a page and a post. 

One of the ways that I like to differentiate a page and a post is that a post is the type of published document that typically belongs in a series (but doesn’t have to).

Posts are published with dates and time, while utilizing tags and categories. An example of a post would be a blog entry, like the one you are reading now. You can see the date it was published and any associated tags and categories to allow for similar content searching. Pages are “static” (stand alone), are not listed by date, and do not use tags or categories. Examples include “About” pages or “Contact” pages. They hold information that is not dated or categorized, standing alone for their separately defined content.

To find your pages or posts, head over to the sidebar and click the appropriate option.

2-1 (1)

 

Pages

Publishing Tools

So you’ve decided to create a page, perhaps for your “About Us” section of your business website. Great! Go to:

Sidebar > Pages > Add New

You’ll be directed to your page editor where you’ll notice a few things:

On the right sidebar, you’ll notice a few things:

Title: The area for naming your page
Body
: Space for the entire text of your page
(right sidebar) Publishing Tools: Control of the visibility of your page.

 

WordPress for Beginners by Bethany Opp Web Studio ages Pages Dashbaord Image

Dashboard view of your WordPress post editor. Image shown is for Pages editor, but is very similar to Posts editor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Publish

WordPress for Beginners by Bethany Opp Web Studio ages Publish Module Image

Here, you can:
-Preview changes
-Set the status to published, draft or pending review
-Set visibility to public, password protected, or private
-Browse your revisions
-Change the published date
-Move to Trash: Don’t like the page? Delete it!
-Publish: This is the last button you’ll utilize before a page goes live!
Once a page is live, should you ever want to edit it again, this will then read “update.” If you come back to the page and put it into draft mode, you will notice the word “publish” will return.

 

Page Attributes

pages_page attributes

 

Below the Publish module, you’ll see Page Attributes where you’ll define three things.

  1. style or “template” which by default gives you two options:
    blank page (no sort of menu or navigation)
    -default template: defaulted style of page however your current them allows
  2. Parent Page of the new page you’re creating, giving it a place in a menu hierarchy
  3. Current order in which your current page will appear within that particular series

 

 

Excerpts

pages_exerpts

Every now and then, you’ll come across a website with an “excerpt” or post summary of the content to be displayed more in-depth when clicked. This is one of the areas that you can set that particular excerpt text. Plain and simple!

 

Sharing

pages_sharing

More often, I’m selecting this option for posts, not pages, but it happens. This will create sharing buttons at the bottom of your page so users can share your amazing content!

***NOTE: While this option is visible by default, there are plugins for specialized sharing buttons that are often used in place of this defaulted WordPress feature***

 

 

Permalink

post_permalink

 

Every page and post on the web has it’s own address, or permalink. It’s important that this is easily readable and memorable for your users to share and find your content! Simple click “edit” and fill out with the appropriate text. I’ve found that with Pages, the defaulted permalink title is perfect.

 

 

 

Posts

 

Publishing Tools

Similar to Pages, Posts utilize a publishing tools module as well.

Beginners Bethany Opp Web Studio WordPress for Publishing Module Image

 

To the right of your Title and Body modules, you’ll see your publishing tools, including:

  1. Publish: edit the status, visibility, and date/time of your document
  2. Move to Trash: ability to delete your document
  3. Publish: make your document live
  4. Format: select what kind of text you’re displaying from standard, video, audio, quote, gallery, or link which will change the look of the post to your viewers

 

Categories

WordPress for Beginners by Bethany Opp Web Studio Categories Module Image
Categories are a way to describe your post so that it can fit in a general grouping of the same material. For example, this blog by Bethany Opp Web Studio is all about web design and WordPress. One way I would categorize this post is WordPress. Which brings me to a similar feature….

 

Tags

WordPress for Beginners by Bethany Opp Web Studio Tags Module Image
Like categories, tags define content, but in more specific detail. As mentioned above, I would categorize this post with WordPress and would tag this post with something like “posting.”

 

Featured Image

WordPress for Beginners by Bethany Opp Web Studio Featured Image Module Image
Lastly, you have the option of a featured image. This is simply an image relating to the particular post you are editing that can be seen across social media and catch your blog reader’s attention. This is a great place to post a “pinable” image, for example, when sharing your post to social media.

 


 

As said before, this was a brief overview of today’s post – Posting, and hopefully this gives you a better idea of the many different tools you can utilize when starting your pages and posts within your own site. Stay tuned for next week as we dive into plugins!