Wordpress when to use posts or pages

[imrubbish]

Hi Guys,

I have a network of EMD sites that currently use a homepage and then we have a blog page which has 5-6 posts on. Is this the best way to do it with sites under 10-20 pages?

Or should we create say 3-4 new pages/categories and drop the posts relevant to each page/category in there?

Thank you

Jon

[AlanBleiweiss]

Generally speaking, search engines expect to see a combination of long-lasting content and regularly added new content.  At least some of that content should be accessible through site-wide navigation.  How much of it depends on the competitive landscape.

Users generally expect enough core (page level) content to give them confidence and trust in a site's ownership.

Given that combination of factors, it's usually best to have at least a couple or few pages that don't change significantly over time.  And "About" page, and a "Contact" page should be the minimum used, regardless of competitive landscape factors.

The home page itself can, if desired, consist mostly snippets from the most recent blog articles.  There should, either on the home page, or on a main blog landing page, as well as throughout all article pages, be a list of the top categories of articles.

Alternately, you could have the home page itself be informational and generally not change over time.

Again, a lot depends on the competitive landscape specific to your targeted keywords.

[JessicaCox]

You can think of your Wordpress Pages and Posts, think of hard and soft landscape elements.

HOW DO I USE PAGES?

Pages are like the boulders of your website. They anchor customer expectations, and provide a semi-permanent structure for your site. Typically pages answer the big questions "Who are you?" "What do you do?" "How can I get in touch with you?" and so on. When paired with solid navigation architecture, pages also keep important information easily available for visitors.

HOW DO I USE POSTS?

Posts are like the annual flowers you put in for a splash of color. A steady stream of posts shows visitors and search engines you have relevant, up to date information. Posts can also provide interesting new reasons for visitors to come back to your site after the initial visit. They allow you to capture more long-tail search traffic, and give you an opportunity to list your blog in RSS directories. Posts also have a shorter shelf life than pages. Once they are replaced by new posts, old posts will always be available in the archives, or accessible via search. However, it can be more difficult to locate old posts as compared to pages.

FUN WITH POSTS & PAGES:

Wordpress has interesting features available for pages and posts.

For example, let's say you have a page explaining a specific line of EMD services. You can also create an EMD category to collect blog posts related to that service. Using that EMD category, you can collect these posts into a feed and embed that category feed into your EMD service page. The result is a static page for your EMD service, which also includes your latest EMD posts.

Good for your visitors, good for search engines.