I common question people usually ask is, “What is the difference between a WordPress Page and a WordPress Post?”
Within WordPress, Pages are different from posts because they don’t get archived the way your blog posts/articles do. They aren’t categorized or tagged, they don’t appear in your listing of recent blog posts or date archives, and they aren’t syndicated in the RSS feeds available on your site.
Content on a page generally doesn’t change. Pages are considered static or stand-alone content and exist separately from the archived post content on your site. With the page feature, you can create an unlimited amount of static pages separate from your blog posts. People commonly use this feature to create ‘About Me’ or ‘Contact Me’ pages, among other things.The table below shows the differences between posts and pages by showing you the different ways the WordPress platform handles them.
| Shows Up | Post | Page |
| Blog Post Listings | Yes | No |
| As a Static Page | No | Yes |
| Monthly Archives Widget | Yes | No |
| Category Archives Widget | Yes | No |
| Recent Posts Widget | Yes | No |
| RSS Feed | Yes | No |
| Search Results | Yes | Yes |
Paul… my understanding is that the Home page really isn’t a page, but a freshly-constructed combination of posts.
Should I, then, box in some static text on the Home page for SEO purposes? Would that make a difference in how it is treated?
Don – This is another answer that will be… “It depends!”
Depending on what you want, you can actually configure WordPress to have the first page be your blog (which is a series of posts) – Your site, http://www.roadturn.com/ does it this way.
Or, you can have a static page show up, with a blog listed in the Navigation Menu – https://digitalmaestro.com does it this way.
Which is better? It depends! My hope is that folks will come to my site, see my course offering and sign up! So I have a static page as my homepage. Your site is providing great content when someone hits your site.
Now, you can put your Opt-in form – http://www.roadturn.com/workbook/ – page as your home page so folks immediately see your offer and opt-in. In that case you would see a static page.
Is that enough info for now?? Did it raise more questions? Let me know!
Paul.
Paul, I am impressed that you take time to respond to questions. Much appreciated.
I am talking about a block of static text on a blog page… not a purely static page. An SEO guy told me static text is necessary for optimal SEO.
I’m not sure I believe it, but I’m open to the idea. Take a look, for instance, at http://www.melaleucablog.com … does that static text help or hinder?
Don –
That site is using the Thesis theme which allows for custom ‘coding’ to do something like that. It has ‘hooks’ to implement customizing like that.
If you want to keep your blog on the front page like it is on your site, you can always create a ‘Sticky Post‘ to always appear.
Is there any SEO value to the practice?
What if one simply put some static text with keywords on a widget in the sidebar. Wouldn’t that accomplish the same thing, or does it need to be the first thing in the body?
It would do the same thing. Keep in mind that the sidebar will appear on EVERY page since it is a sidebar. The sticky post will only show up on the blog page.
Seems to me, Paul, that if the posts are relevant to the focus (include key words as a natural function), then the static text is of no real value.
Is that your take on the idea?
I agree. Remember that you should be writing FIRST for your readers, not the search engines. A search engine ner contacted someone to make a purchase!