This is a condensed version of the post below.
WordPress websites have web pages and blog posts. Make an About Us page, Contact Us page, Testimonials page and any other page you want to include in the main navigation bar at the top of your site.
But for the bulk of your website content, do not use pages, use posts.
Think of 4 categories that accurately describe your site’s content. Make those categories inside your WordPress website, then as you make each new post assign that post to the relevant category.
By linking directly to any category, you can display all posts in your website that are on that topic.
For instance…
www.mysite.com/category/social-media-tips
These are some facts you need to know before you start to make web pages or blog posts for your website.
Posts and pages are slightly different
The two main ways to add content to your WordPress website are pages and posts.
Pages
Most site owners only use pages for things like their contact us page or their about us page. Most WordPress websites have a relatively small number of pages. Most of the content in a WordPress website is displayed using posts, which are sometimes called blog posts.
Pages in a WordPress website are typically used for…
- The About Us page.
- The Contact Us page.
- The Our Services page.
- The Testimonials page.
All of these pages are referred to as static pages. These are typically the pages you would see listed in the navigation bar at the top of your website.
A very basic guide would be to make pages that explain…
- Who you are.
- What you do.
- How to contact you.
Posts or “blog posts”
Posts are designed to be used when you want to write an article that your site visitors will enjoy reading or find useful.
For instance you might have one PAGE that describes what you do…
“Dog walking service in Harrogate”
But you might have ten POSTS that your site visitors (dog owners) would find useful, such as…
- When should I keep my dog on a lead?
- How to help your puppy make new friends.
- Should you take your dog to a dog obedience class?
- etc.etc.etc.
Organizing your content using categories and tags
Posts, or blog posts can be organised into categories. Posts can be organised in even more detail using tags.
As your website grows this ability to organise your content becomes more and more important.
The reason categories and tags are so important is that…
WordPress can automatically list all posts in a certain category
For instance you might have a category called social media tips.
If you wrote a new post and placed that post into your social media tips category, WordPress would automatically add the post to a blog style listing for that particular category…
To view the category and see all of your posts about social media you would just visit the relevant page on your website.
www.mysite.com/category/social-media-tips
This is a blog or category style listing page
PAGES can NOT be organised using categories and tags. So whenever possible use POSTS
If you have more than a few basic pages on your site I highly recommend that you use POSTS for most of your content. Then think carefully and find 4 to 6 basic categories that you can use to organise your POSTS (content) into.
Don’t make too many categories in your new site. If, over time, your site grows and you decide you need more categories, you can easily add them later.
And you can move posts from one category to another, if you need to.
What are Tags?
This quote comes from the WordPress.com website…
Categories Versus Tags
Let’s say you’re about to post a recipe for brownies on your food blog. You’d probably want to use categories like “Dessert” and “Baking”, and tags like “Chocolate”, “Brownies” and “Walnuts”.
Use categories for your main topics. Use tags for other, less specific, supporting terms.
In the same way that you can link to category listing pages, you can link to blog style listing pages for tags. These pages list all of the posts that are tagged with a particular tag. For example…
www.mysite.com/tag/chocolate/
So, to keep your site well organised use POSTS categories and tags
Start as you mean to go on. Think of the main topics your website will be about. Then make a category for each topic. Try not to make more than 4 categories for a brand new website. You can always add more in the future.
You can add categories and tags to your website via the WordPress dashboard, or as you write new posts
Adding a new category via the WordPress dashboard
Adding a new category or tag to your website as you write a new post
