When to use Post vs Page in WP?

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ImagesAndWords

ImagesAndWords

StayblCam.com
Nov 7, 2006
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Scottsdale, Arizona
www.stayblcam.com
For years I've been doing old-school html and php pages, but just recently started getting used to setting up blogs. I have the majority of two sites configured and ready to launch with some content, but wanted to know what you guys think of using pages vs. using posts in Wordpress?

What are the pros and cons of both from an SEO point of view?

Also, I'm having a hard time with one of the blogs just returning
"Not Found. The requested URL..." type errors when clicking on any of my posts or pages in one of my blogs. I have Googled this issue a bit and it seems to be a common WP problem, but from what I can see everything seems configured correctly. Suggestions to this are also welcome. :)

Thanks!
 


First of all, your error is probably from not updating your .htaccess after changing your permalink structure. Do that.

Second of all, posts/pages act a teeny bit differently and you'll want to know the slight differences before you start the legwork. A few to mention are:
  • Pages are generally "static" things like "about us" that will always remain there.
  • Posts can be filed and nested into categories so when you click the CATEGORY, it can list all the posts in that category.
  • You can file a single post under multiple categories.
  • You can use WP Codex to change your template to display pages/posts in alphabetical order or by date.
  • You can also designate how many layers down you want to show. So for example say i have an article site and one of my categories is automotive. Undertneath that I have "new cars", "used cars" and "service". You can choose to only display the main category, "Automotive", but since you have subcats those will be included in the URL for SEO and you can also reorganize much easier later on should you want to.
  • You CAN nest pages but when you click on the parent page, it won't display subpages... it's a matter of organization.
I would start by physically mapping out your site with pen and paper... how you want it. Then start fiddling with it based on thinking of it in terms of pages/categories. Also remember, using the WP Codex you can accomplish a lot more. I usually have some people help me with that but it's pretty powerful.
 
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Thanks a bunch for your answers, trigatch4! :)
+rep

Damn, I was certain that I had already fixed the .htaccess but... what do you know... :uhoh2:

I have been using posts and pages the way you described it so it seems I was on the right track already. Good to know.

I have also tried to write a script that will quickly install and configure a WP blog from a premade template/config set but until then, I gotta set them up manually for every time. What I find the most time-consuming is tweaking the templates to get everything to look the way I want. But that's part of the game I guess. :)
 
Once you tweak ONE theme the way you want... save it locally.. inluding the plugins and other changes. then drag it onto a new blog a via ftp and mostly everything will be ready to go. minus headers/colors/stuff like that.
 
Another thing is that when you make a new post, you can ping to a bunch of websites. Also the articles/posts will be visible in your feed. Can be handy to spam a bunch of rss dirs. :)
 
Yeah I save everything locally and do FTP back to new accounts on my servers.

Thanks for the input, jchunk. I'll be sure to ping whenever I can. ;)

Now I just need to figure out how to get the Gallery plugin to work with Gallery2 but I don't expect you guys to hold my hand through all this. Gotta figure this one out for myself:
Error (ERROR_STORAGE_FAILURE) :
in modules/core/classes/GalleryStorage/DatabaseStorage.class at line 1166 (gallerystatus::error)
in modules/core/classes/GalleryStorage.class at line 245 (mysqldatabasestorage::search)
in modules/core/classes/Gallery.class at line 223 (gallerystorage::search)
in modules/core/classes/helpers/GalleryPluginHelper_simple.class at line 300 (gallery::search)
in modules/core/classes/helpers/GalleryPluginHelper_simple.class at line 241 (gallerypluginhelper_simple::fetchallparameters)
in modules/core/classes/GalleryCoreApi.class at line 216 (gallerypluginhelper_simple::getparameter)
in modules/core/classes/GallerySession.class at line 246 (gallerycoreapi::getpluginparameter)
in modules/core/classes/Gallery.class at line 323 (gallerysession::init)
in init.inc at line 116 (gallery::initsession)
in main.php at line 73​
 
jchunk said:
Another thing is that when you make a new post, you can ping to a bunch of websites. Also the articles/posts will be visible in your feed. Can be handy to spam a bunch of rss dirs. :)
Click to expand...

There is a plugin that adds your pages to your feed. And submitting feeds helps a lot.
 
Is pages a good way to let Wordpress manage your site if you dont want/cant do design work?

ie I dont want to make a blog, but I do want to make a simple informational site of 20-30 or so pages linked together and categorized navigationally. I dont know web design (not current web design, at least. CSS = new found to my skillset) so Id rather just find a Wordpress theme, hack it up, and let it act as a CMS
 
Actually.. I just figued out how to do it last night.

Use pages. Then, download a tool called NAVT for Wordpress, make sure your template supports widgets, and badda bing, your in like flynt.

NAVT makes widgetable menus that adapt the styling of your template. Integrates REAL nicely.

Hope that helps someone because it sure as hell helped me alot.
 
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