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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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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Blog Owners Reporting Posts Publishing Without Page URLs

We are seeing a small amount of blog owners who report that their blogs appear to be publishing new posts without individual URLs. The latest posts, when indexed in the Archive gadget, or in the post titles, simply link to the main page of the blog. Some reports mention that links in the "Edit Posts" / "Posts" menu also link to the main page, while other reports explicitly state that the links in "Edit Posts" / "Posts" are fine.

Checking this post, I can see no apparent problem - so it appears that this problem is not affecting all blogs. The extremely low reporting volume suggests that the problem has a very limited victim population. I did examine one blog, where the URL was provided - and verified that the problem existed for a significant number of recently published posts.

We have a rollup discussion in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, where we are requesting details, from blog owners who are observing this problem with their blogs.

If you are observing this problem with posts in your blog, please provide details, as best possible.

• What's the URL of the blog?
• Do you use Blogger Post Editor, or a third party publishing tool like "Windows Live Writer", to compose and publish your posts?
• If Blogger Post Editor, do you publish posts using the Classic or the New GUI?
• When did you first observe the problem?
• When did you last not observe the problem?
• Are you seeing the problem only in the blog content, or also in the "Edit Posts" / "Posts" menu links to View the post?

Right now, details about this problem are badly needed, so at least the scope of the problem can be determined.

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