Understanding content types: posts vs. pages
To manage your website effectively, it is essential to understand the structural differences between “posts” and “pages.” While they use a similar editor, they serve two distinct purposes within the WordPress architecture. The following guide explains these differences and how the theme leverages posts to power your staff directory, visual lists, and blog sections.
The basics about posts and pages
Think of your website like a physical office building.
- Pages are the rooms. They are static, permanent, and usually live in your navigation menu, for example, “About Us” or “Contact.” You don’t expect the floor plan to change every week.
- Posts are the magazines on the coffee table. They are timely, categorized, and dynamic. They’re designed to be updated, shared, and organized by date or topic.
In this theme, we’ve transformed regular posts into a versatile engine for your content.
How the WP 2.0 theme uses posts
While many themes treat posts as just a “blog,” we’ve designed this version to be more modular. Here is how your content comes to life:
- The classic blog
The most straightforward use for posts. Share updates, industry insights, or company news. These appear in reverse-chronological order and are perfect for SEO and keeping your audience engaged. - Staff bios and profiles
Instead of one giant, cluttered “Team” page that’s difficult to edit, we use posts for individual staff members.- The benefit: Each team member gets their own dedicated URL.
- How it works: Our “Staff” parent page automatically pulls in staff profiles, displaying the headshot, name, and title that is populated from each person’s post. When a visitor clicks a name, they are taken to that staff member’s full “post” bio.
- The thumbnail list template
Need to showcase different features from your department? The thumbnail list page template is your answer.- The process: You create posts for each item, for example, “List Item A,” “List Item B,” etc.
- How it works: The template gathers these posts you create into a clean, two column image and text layout. The template handles the layout automatically so you can focus on creating the content.
Editor tip: If you want to permanently add content to the main navigation menu, make it a page. If you want the new content to be part of a changing, filterable list, make it a post.