What Are The Differences Between Pages And Posts?

Occasionally, we see a naive question about pages (static pages), and posts (dynamic pages), requesting a value comparison.

What are the advantages of using a page, instead of a post?

That question, worded in that vague way, cannot be answered. The various differences between pages and posts can provide advantages, or disadvantages. To evaluate a page or a post as an advantage, one must know the specific needs of the blog in question.

Long ago, Blogger blogs consisted simply of posts, displayed using the static Classic template. The "home" page of each blog was merely the most recently published post. Each post was published with an optional index, "Previous Posts", which listed merely the 10 posts previous to the post displayed. There was no

• Archives gadget (Date sequenced post index).
• Labels gadget (Topic sequenced post index).
• Main page display (Date sequenced aggregated post display).

Other posts could be located, only one post at a time, by following the top link in "Previous Posts", from post to post - or directly, from any links in the posts.

With blogs published to Classic templates, important posts were directly accessed using in post links, intentionally added as the posts were composed.

In 2007, Blogger added the dynamic Layouts templates.

Instead of displaying the most recent post as the blog home page, they gave us the main page display, to display a sequential array of recent posts. Instead of the "10 Previous Posts" index, they gave us a true "Previous Posts" index, renamed "Archives", which indexed all posts in the blog.

All posts could be accessed, using either the Archives index - or by following the main page display links ("Newer Posts" / "Older Posts"), located at the bottom of each main page display segment.

Some blog owners, enjoying their blogs with the new Layouts templates and the Archives index, demanded special blog posts that were not indexed in the Archives gadget, and could be "hidden" from their readers.

Remember that all posts, using the Classic templates, were "hidden" - excepting important posts, directly accessed using in post links. To satisfy this new requirement, Blogger later added "pages", special posts that are accessed only when linked - never in archives, label searches, or main page displays.

Some time after adding the "pages" feature, Blogger added the "Pages" gadget, to provide an easy to setup index for important pages and posts. The term "pages" became used by many blog owners, to refer to both "ordinary" posts (aka "dynamic" pages), and "special" posts (aka "static" pages) - since both classes of "posts" could be accessed using the Pages gadget

The confusion between "pages" and "posts" is further aided because the edit wizards for each feature have a common overall display layout. Those blog owners not knowleagable about "pages" design may confuse the "page editor" and the "post editor", and continue to refer to everything as either "pages" or "posts".


This post, composed in the Page Editor.
Pages ("Static" Pages)

• Are created using the page editor, accessed from the dashboard Pages wizard.
• Are edited using the page editor, accessed using the dashboard Pages wizard, or the QuickEdit icon on the blog face.
• Are not relevant to the date when published.
• Cannot be scheduled, to publish in the future.
• Cannot be properly created with a blank title - though malfunctioning Blogger code has occasionally allowed pages with blank titles, a mistake which has caused other problems with pages.
• Cannot be created with a custom URL. A Page URL is rigidly based on page title, when published. URL Duplication prevention for pages is not understood.
• Cannot use "Jump Break" in a summarised index (main page display).
• Are limited per blog. Each blog can have a maximum of 20 pages - and deleted pages do not allow creation of additional pages.
• Will host one single post.
• Do not appear in archive indexes, label searches, and main page displays.
• Do not appear in blog newsfeeds.
• Do not have labels.

This post, composed in the Post Editor.
Posts ("Dynamic" Pages)

• Are created using the post editor, accessed from the "New Post" button, located in the Navbar, or in the dashboard Posts List display.
• Are edited using the post editor, accessed from the dashboard Posts List display, or the QuickEdit icon on the blog face.
• Are relevant to the date when published. The URL of each post will always include the current year and month when published.
• Can be scheduled, to publish in the future.
• Can be properly created with a blank title - though problems occasionally make the post editor malfunction when publishing posts with blank title.
• Can be created with a custom URL, when originally published. URL Duplication prevention for posts, especially considering "custom" URLs and post scheduling, is complicated - and has caused other problems with posts, and with their URLs.
• Can use "Jump Break" in a summarised index (main page display).
• Are unlimited per blog.
• Can host multiple posts, using label searches. A label search can also be used as a dynamic page.
• Appear in archive indexes, label searches, and main page displays.
• Appear in blog newsfeeds.
• Have labels.

In general, use of a page or a post, in any given scenario, is chosen based on the latter 6 details. When incorrectly chosen, we frequently see questions.

How do I publish a page with multiple posts?

or

How do I publish more than 20 pages in my blog?

This post is being published as a "dynamic" page. Click here, to see this post published as a "static" page - and click here, to see this post published as a portion of a label search "dynamic" page (with "Jump Break").

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Is A Sitemap Useful, For A Blogger Blog?

Occasionally in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, we see evidence of confusion and doubt.

Do I really need a sitemap, for my blog?

This question, when asked, may help us to design our blogs better.

WikiPedia defines a sitemap as

a list of pages of a web site accessible to crawlers or users

Classically, a sitemap is a visual index, to help the people viewing a static website, to easily identify and access a specific article in the website.

A sitemap provides an alternate index, to a non Blogger website. Most websites are static, with a hierarchically accessed, single structure. A well designed sitemap allows people and crawlers to more efficiently locate specific articles (pages or posts), in a static website.

Most Blogger blogs provide much more than a hierarchical, single, static structure. By default, a Blogger blog links its pages and posts dynamically, using several alternate indexes.

• Archives (posts listed hierarchically, by date).
• Labels (posts listed hierarchically, by topic).
• Extended main page (posts listed sequentially, by "Newer Posts" / "Older Posts").

Any blog, which provides one or more of these features, is effectively its own sitemap - for viewer access.

For crawler access, the options are simpler.

• Archives (posts listed hierarchically, by date).
• Extended main page (posts listed sequentially, by "Newer Posts" / "Older Posts").

Label searches, which use a different URL structure from the base blog design, are not used for indexing a Blogger blog.

If you look at the main page of a typical blog, you can follow the "Newer Posts" / "Older Posts" links from page to page, repeatedly - and eventually, see every post in the blog. With a new blog, with few posts, and predominantly "first visit" viewer traffic, the main page makes a passible sitemap. For an older blog, with many posts, and more "repeat" viewer traffic, the main page makes a less efficient sitemap.

For crawlers, which will generally follow a limited number of links within any single blog or website, the main page makes a still less efficient sitemap. Most blogs with any appreciable search engine reputation, however, only need new posts indexed by the crawlers - as older posts are already indexed, and remain in search engine cache.

Blogger provides a good, default gadget which serves as a sitemap, on most blogs - the Archives index. Look in the sidebar of this blog, about halfway down, for the "Contents" gadget. This is an HTML based gadget, which produces a set of hierarchical, date structured links, exhaustively enumerating each post in the blog. It's an ideal structure, for search engine bots (crawlers) to follow. If your blog includes this accessory, that's probably sufficient for indexing.

Blogs which contain one or more features can provide search engine access, organically.

• Well written, regularly published posts.
• The standard Archives gadget.
• The standard "Newer Posts" / "Older Posts" links.

Such blogs may not need a sitemap, to provide good access to both people and crawlers.

Both the Archives, Labels, and "Newer Posts" / "Older Posts" links are subject, on some blogs, to customisation. A blog with Javascript driven Archives, Labels, and / or custom pagination ("Newer Posts" / "Older Posts") gadgets may not provide easy crawler access. This also affects blogs which use dynamic templates. If you tweak your blog extensively, you may want to consider these issues.

There is one special case where a sitemap is always needed. Any time the URL of your blog is changed - whether to a new BlogSpot URL, or to a non BlogSpot custom domain - prompt re indexing, under the new URL, is a necessity to regain search engine reputation. A robust sitemap set, which directly references all posts in the blog, helps the crawlers to re index each post, under the new URL, much faster.

Other than that special case, a blog with standard, well designed, features may not actually need a sitemap.

A sitemap, setup through Google Webmaster Tools - and using the blog posts newsfeed, defined through "robots.txt" - is a simple accessory to add, and requires no ongoing maintenance. Given this reasoning, most blog owners simply setup a sitemap, and don't worry about the above issues and questions.

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Blogger Magic: Pages Vs Posts

Not all blog owners know what pages are - nor how they differ from posts. We see confusion, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?.

How do I publish a post, which always appears on the home page?

or

How do I publish a post, which never appears on the home page?

or

How do I publish multiple posts on a page?

Long ago, we used workarounds, like publishing a post, using a future or past date. The workarounds would create a post which would always, or never, appear on the home page - but there were always side effects, from using either technique.

In 2010, Blogger gave us static pages - pages which are created and look like posts - but never appear in archive, label, or main page displays.

We were able to link to the static pages, using tabs lists and linklists, that we could create, as we liked. The pages editor has the same look and feel as the posts editor - and pages have the same look and feel as posts.

In 2011, they gave us the Pages gadget, a prebuilt XML gadget, which we use to index both posts and pages. In 2012, they gave us Custom Permalinks and Redirects, which let us use our posts and pages in imaginative ways.

Some blog owners construct blogs like static websites - until they run up against the Blogger static pages limit.

The static pages limit will be a problem, for those who never bother to note the functional differences between dynamic pages (also known as "posts"), and static pages (also known as "pages") - until their uncontrolled use of static pages restricts continued blog expansion.

Look at some examples of dynamic and static content.

This is a dynamic page URL, from this blog:

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2013/08/blogger-magic-pages-vs-posts.html

See the "/2012/04/"? That denotes a dynamic page, with a date.

This is a second dynamic page URL, from this blog:

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/search/label/Pages

The "/search/label/" also denotes a dynamic page.

This is a third dynamic page URL, from this blog:

http://recipes.nitecruzr.net/

External pages are also dynamic, because their content is not controlled as part of this blog.

This is a static page URL, from this blog:

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/p/topics.html

See the "/p/"? That denotes a static page. A static page can appear like a single post, with slight differences.

The limit on static pages is a resource issue. Static pages require specific resources, pre allocated to every blog. Increasing the limit on static pages, as with increasing the limit on number of labels, would require a change to all blogs. Such resources are limited, just as everything is limited, in some way.

Even if you can have only up to 20 static pages, you can index an unlimited amount of dynamic pages, using the Pages gadget, and adding "Web address" entries. There is no limit, with dynamic pages.

When you add the combinations of dynamic and static pages, with the possibilities of custom redirects, you get many different possibilities, and different possible advantages - and this will look like magic, to the untrained eye.

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Redirecting Any URL In Your Blog, To Another URL In Your Blog

Several months ago, Blogger Engineering gave us a new Blogger feature - the ability to redirect any URL in a blog, to any other URL in the blog. Like any feature, we found an immediate use for it - something much requested, for a good while.

Other people have found more uses for the redirection feature - and still others have found confusion. The syntax used in the redirection "From" and "To" values is not always obvious - and occasionally there is confusion about what can - and can't - be done with redirection.

This is the URL of this post.

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2012/12/redirecting-any-url-in-your-blog-to.html

Using the redirection feature, I can redirect another URL in this blog, to this post - or conversely, I can redirect the URL of this post to another URL, in this blog.

Both the "From" and "To" values in "Custom Redirects" accept any static blog URL, less the base URL of that blog. You cannot specify the base URL - so all redirections will be within the blog itself. You also cannot use a dynamic URL (containing a "?") in a redirect.

The initial use for the redirection feature (at least, for me) was to replace the Home page of the blog, with another page or post - possibly, this post.

From: /
To: /2012/12/redirecting-any-url-in-your-blog-to.html

I could change the Home page of this blog, to start all new readers on the Topics Index page.

From: /
To: /p/topics.html

If I was to change the Title of this post, when re published, the URL would not change. If I wanted to change the URL of this post, I could redirect the desired URL, to the actual URL.

From: /2012/12/redirecting-any-urls-in-your-blog.html
To: /2012/12/redirecting-any-url-in-your-blog-to.html

If I want to allow this post to be accessed from a shorter URL, I can do that. If you click on the shorter URL (below), you will note that you still see the longer URL in the browser address window!

From: /redirecting-any-url-in-your-blog-to.html
To: /2012/12/redirecting-any-url-in-your-blog-to.html

I recently created a shortcut to my Topics index, as "blogging.nitecruzr.net/topics".

From: /topics
To: /p/topics.html

To get the "From" and "To" values for any redirection, I simply take any two URLs in the same blog. Choose any two examples - one for "From", the other for "To".

• The Home page: http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/
• A post: http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2012/12/redirecting-any-url-in-your-blog-to.html
• A static page: http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/p/topics.html
• A label search: http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/search/label/Redirecting
• A shortcut URL: http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/topics

And drop the base URL: http://blogging.nitecruzr.net

Giving:

• The Home page: /
• A post: /2012/12/redirecting-any-url-in-your-blog-to.html
• A static page: /p/topics.html
• A label search: /search/label/Redirecting
• A shortcut URL: /topics

Having developed the proper "From" and "To" values, adding a "Custom Redirects" entry is simple enough.

Having setup a useful complement of Pages, and redirected the Home page, you may wish to remove the "Home" page tab. Just edit the Pages gadget, using the dashboard Layout wizard, or the on blog quick edit icon - not the dashboard Pages wizard - and de select the "Home" page.

A simple example, showing the result, may be seen in my demonstration blog, Home Page Redirected To Label Search.

From: /
To: /search/label/Home%20Page

You may also wish to remove the "Showing posts with label ..." notice, if you like a cleaner display. In my demonstration blog (mentioned above), I did not do this - to make my examples more obvious.

The possibilities here are endless. Just use common sense - and again, note the limits on redirection.

Click here, for instructions. Note again, that the actual address, displayed in the browser address window, will not change.

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Label Management In The New GUI

With more people starting to use the New Blogger GUI, we're starting to see more questions about some non obvious and obscure details. Recently, people are starting to use the New GUI for routine blog maintenance, and are trying to manage their labels.

How do I add labels to my posts, using the Posts (previously the "Edit Posts") menu?

The answer is right there in front of our eyes - but we need sharp eyes.

With the Classic GUI "Edit Posts" menu, we had a pulldown menu labeled "Label Actions". Opening the menu, we would see three sections.

• "Apply Label" - with an inventory of all current labels.
• At the bottom of the "Apply Label" list, subtly placed "New Label...".
• "Remove Label" - with an inventory of all labels in all currently selected posts.

The New GUI Posts menu has none of these. Now, we have a stylised "label" logo, with a pulldown arrow. Opening the menu, we see two sections.

• "New label...".
• An inventory of all current labels.

It's not complicated, to use the new menu.

1. Select one or more posts, in the posts list.
2. To add a label to the posts selected, open the label menu, and click on a label.
3. To remove a label from the posts selected, open the label menu, and click on a label.
4. Basically, the labels menu is a toggle.
   • If you click on a label that's not part of the selected posts already (or, add a "New label"), the label gets added to the posts selected.
   • If you click on a label that's part of the selected posts already, the label gets removed from the posts selected.
   It is that simple - really.

It's just not obvious, at first glance.

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