A Beginner’s Guide to WordPress Pages
In this guide, we’ll discuss everything you’ll need to know about WordPress pages, including how to create and edit them. We’ll also explain how to use the WordPress API to customize the way you retrieve and display pages on your site.
As one of the building blocks of any website, pages are an integral part of WordPress. The platform enables you to quickly add static pages that can act as part of the site’s overall architecture. If you’re new to WordPress, however, you may be unsure how pages work.
A WordPress page differs from a post in many ways. For instance, a page can display any content you want, including blog posts. Pages are also designed for more permanent content, while posts are typically tied to dates and organized into categories.
An Introduction to WordPress Pages
Every website requires at least one page to be visible to the public, but WordPress enables you to create as many pages as you need. Pages are distinct from posts, the other primary content type in WordPress, in three main ways:
- Pages are designed for static content. This means they’re for content that rarely changes over time, like About Us and Contact Us sections.
- By default, pages do not allow comments. Pages aren’t meant for social engagement but for sharing information.
- You can use a page to hold and display posts. While you can display posts on a page, you can’t do the opposite.
Understanding the difference between pages and posts in WordPress is just the beginning, of course. Let’s dive a little deeper and discuss how to manage pages.
How to Manage WordPress Pages
Managing your pages is a straightforward process in WordPress. Out of the box, the platform comes with the tools you need to create, edit, organize, and remove any pages on your site. Let’s address these tasks one by one.
Adding and Editing Pages in WordPress
Your first step is learning how to create pages and then edit them. To get started, visit your admin dashboard. From the left menu, select Pages and then click on Add New.
From here, you can begin editing your page. To do this, just add whatever content you’d like in the page editor. You can type text directly into the box and place images and other media using the Add Media button. In addition, you can even include code through the Text tab. Once you’ve made your changes, you can publish the page or save it as a draft to work on later.
Organizing Your WordPress Pages
When you add a new page to WordPress, it becomes a part of your navigation. Depending on your installation default setting, WordPress will either arrange your pages by date published or in alphabetical order. If you want to change this, you will need to use a hierarchy to organize them.
To get started, click on
In this box, there is a drop-down menu under Parent. If you want to make this page a subpage or child of one of your other pages, you would do that here. Otherwise, you can simply use the Order box to determine what order your pages will appear in on your website menu. If you leave the number at 0, for example, the selected page will be the first one in the hierarchy. If all pages are set at 0, they will be organized alphabetically.
Once you click on Update, all your settings will be saved. You’ll want to do this for each page on your site. If you add new pages later, you can follow the same steps to organize them within your existing hierarchy.
Removing a WordPress Page
If you want to delete a page, the steps for doing so are straightforward. Go to the Pages screen of your dashboard again. Hover over the page you want to delete, and you’ll see the word Trash in red lettering.
Click that link and the page will be moved to your trash bin. If you need to delete multiple pages, you can select the checkbox to the left of each one. Then go to the Bulk Actions menu just above the list of pages, and select Move to Trash.
Deleted pages can be restored by clicking the Trash link above the pages listing. Hover over the page you want and click Restore. If you'd like to remove the page for good, click the red Delete Permanently link.
Conclusion
WordPress enables you to quickly add, edit, and organize pages on your website. These pages are primarily used for static content and can be organized hierarchically as part of your site’s overall architecture.
