This document discusses how to organize content on a WordPress website using pages, posts, categories, and tags. Posts are for timely content and display in reverse chronological order, while pages are for static content like "About" or "Contact." Categories group related posts together like sections in a newspaper, and can have subcategories, while tags further describe individual posts to help users search. The document provides examples and answers common questions about using these tools to logically organize a website's content.

1. PAGES, POSTS, CATEGORIES
AND TAGS
ORGANIZING YOUR CONTENT

2. ORGANIZING YOUR CONTENT
AGENDA
▸ Who am I?
▸ What are Posts?
▸ What are Pages?
▸ When to use them both
▸ Categories
▸ How to use them to organize your content
▸ Tags
▸ Common questions

3. ORGANIZING YOUR CONTENT
WHO AM I?
▸ WordPress user since before it was WordPress
▸ Have taught people how to use WordPress for over 6 years now
▸ Taught first college level course on WordPress in Canada
▸ Currently work for the worlds largest hosting provider as their
WordPress guy (among other things).
▸ Assist Custom Website team that builds exclusively with
WordPress
▸ Have spoken at WordCamps across Canada and the USA

4. ORGANIZING YOUR CONTENT
WHAT ARE POSTS?
▸ Posts are the content type most often used by WordPress
websites.
▸ Displayed in reverse chronological order.
▸ Typically offer timely or current information.
▸ Found on either the home page or the blog related page
(could be named anything…news, blog, etc.).
▸ Posts typically have comments enabled as this is where you
want people to discuss and comment on your content.

5. ORGANIZING YOUR CONTENT
WHAT ARE PAGES?
▸ Pages are for more static or non-timely content.
▸ Used for things like About Us, Contact,Legal disclaimers etc.
▸ Comments are typically turned off as there is no need for
discussion.
▸ Pages are not files, they live in the WP database like
everything else.
▸ A specific page can be set as your homepage or static front
page of your website.

6. ORGANIZING YOUR CONTENT
WHEN TO USE PAGES VS POSTS
▸ If the content relates to your company history, make it a
page. No need for discussion or comments.
▸ If the content is something you might send out as a news
release, make it a post.
▸ If you want feedback on the content , make it a post.
▸ If the content is likely to not change (ex. Contact Us), make
it a page.

7. ORGANIZING YOUR CONTENT
CATEGORIES
▸ Categories provide an easy way to group related posts
together.
▸ They are only applicable to posts and not to pages.
▸ Helps your reader get to the content they are looking for
quickly without having to wade through all of your content.
▸ Categories can be broken down into sub categories.
▸ They should be relevant to the content you are producing.

8. ORGANIZING YOUR CONTENT
CATEGORIES EXAMPLE
▸ Think of your website like a newspaper.
▸ Newspapers have distinct sections (aka categories)
▸ Sports
▸ Entertainment
▸ Classifieds
▸ Financial News

9. ORGANIZING YOUR CONTENT
CATEGORIES EXAMPLE
▸ If I write a post about the local sports teams game from the
night before, I want it to show up in the proper section or
category of my website.
▸ In this case it would be the sports section (obviously).
▸ As more content is produced, the posts should be
assigned to relevant categories, making it easy for your
readers to find what they are looking for.

10. ORGANIZING YOUR CONTENT
CATEGORIES EXAMPLE
▸ You can further refine your categories by adding subcategories.
▸ Example:
▸ Entertainment section could have the following sub categories
▸ TV
▸ Movies
▸ Books
▸ Music
▸ You get the idea

11. ORGANIZING YOUR CONTENT
TAGS
▸ Tags are similar to categories but are more granular in
nature.
▸ If categories are your table of contents, tags are your index
words.
▸ You don’t need to use tags but they are great for searching
your site.
▸ Tags further describe your content to the site user.

12. ORGANIZING YOUR CONTENT
TAGS EXAMPLE
▸ A recipe website
▸ Recipes categorized by meal type ( breakfast, lunch,
dessert, etc.)
▸ Site user finds a great pie recipe, and wants to find
more pie recipes on your site.
▸ If every pie recipe on the site had a “pie” tag, the user
could find more recipes quickly.

13. ORGANIZING YOUR CONTENT
ONE MORE EXAMPLE
▸ A real estate website
▸ Categories could be
▸ Detached , Semi-Detached, Condo
▸ Tags could be
▸ Fireplace, Pool, Finished Basement

14. ORGANIZING YOUR CONTENT
COMMON QUESTIONS
▸ How many categories should I have?
▸ Enough that people can find what they are looking for, but
not so many that they get confused.
▸ How many tags per post should I use?
▸ No set number here either. You should tag sparingly and
efficiently.
▸ Do I have to have posts on my site?
▸ No, you can create a site that is all pages if you wish.

15. ORGANIZING YOUR CONTENT
WRAPPING UP
▸ Questions?

16. ORGANIZING YOUR CONTENT
CONTACT
▸ al@wpteach.com
▸ www.wpteach.com

17. ORGANIZING YOUR CONTENT
PAGES, POSTS, CATEGORIES AND TAGS
Thank you!