Wordpress: Pages vs Posts

[robo901]

I am intending to add an encyclopedia (around 25 single pages/URLs) to my e commerce site.

Shall I use pages or posts for the encyclopedia? For both types I can create the same permalink structure.

"Google doesn't care whether you use posts or pages. That's a Wordpress thing, not a Google thing." - Is that statement valid in your opinion?

Also I read that posts can "lose" their value after a certain time while pages are more stable (evergreens). That would mean that I should use pages for the encyclopedia I guess?

 

[Amphoric]

If your pages are going to be static/have information that likely won't change much, just make a page. My pages rank just as good as my posts.

 

[Nargil]

It absolutely doesn't matter if you use posts, pages or toilet paper. All Google crawler sees is a line of code. It doesn't matter how the "canvas" is called.

 

[robo901]

It absolutely doesn't matter if you use posts, pages or toilet paper. All Google crawler sees is a line of code. It doesn't matter how the "canvas" is called.

Would you say that the category prefix matters?

I would use
example.com/encyclopedia/pagename1
example.com/encyclopedia/pagename2
example.com/encyclopedia/pagename3
etc.

The word encyclopedia is not a relevant keyword for my site and it doesnt look very userfriendly but adding a category prefix could be beneficial for seo as it adds site structure, if I understand correctly? What are your thoughts on that?

 

[Nargil]

Would you say that the category prefix matters?

I would use
example.com/encyclopedia/pagename1
example.com/encyclopedia/pagename2
example.com/encyclopedia/pagename3
etc.

The word encyclopedia is not a relevant keyword for my site and it doesnt look very userfriendly but adding a category prefix could be beneficial for seo as it adds site structure, if I understand correct? What are your thoughts on that?

The shorter the URL, the better. Don't bother with having category in the URL at all.

 

[Deleted member 657006]

no silo better .

example.com/item-catagory/item/item-name.html

for seo purpuse as the

item catagory , can be a offset kw
item , another index posabilty
item.html , can be specefic to be indexed

 

[jeffro89]

Don't bother with having category in the URL at all.

You able to explain this further @Nargil ?

My assumption was having the full structure of the URL mattered especially if you have keywords in the URL. Why not include the category page? I understand that a long ass URL over 75 characters is not good. But how true is that.

 

[Nargil]

You able to explain this further @Nargil ?

My assumption was having the full structure of the URL mattered especially if you have keywords in the URL. Why not include the category page? I understand that a long ass URL over 75 characters is not good. But how true is that.

It adds unnecessary URL length. What people consider "silo" is not a "silo", it's just a logical structure, that can easily be done even without having 5 deep URL levels.

From my experience, the deeper the URL level, the shittier it ranks, even though it shouldn't. Barely any sites these days use 4 - 5 level deep structures.

 

[Hanzo_AA]

That’s for your own organization

 

[Aty]

As said above, don't bother adding category in the url.
yourdomain.com/page-about-something/ is what I would go with.

 

[Panther28]

The reason is use pages for static, and posts for new blog posts, is you can add categories on Wordpress for posts, you can't for pages.

 

[nichexposure]

It adds unnecessary URL length. What people consider "silo" is not a "silo," it's just a logical structure that can easily be done even without having five deep URL levels.

From my experience, the deeper the URL level, the shittier it ranks, even though it shouldn't. Barely any sites these days use 4 - 5 level deep structures.

To the point. The less crawl depth, the better outcome. I set the category for better siloing for one of my new sites, and it does not bring any magic for me. I know I might make any mistake or whatever, but I am saying whatever I experienced. To OP, page or post doesn't matter. But for the best practice, we set the fixed content like Home, About, Contact, etc. as a page and rest of the article as the post. But again doesn't matter.

 

[jeffro89]

Well gents, guess its time to fuck up my Permalink structure, this is gonna be painful.

 

[robo901]

The shorter the URL, the better. Don't bother with having category in the URL at all.

To the point. The less crawl depth, the better outcome. I set the category for better siloing for one of my new sites, and it does not bring any magic for me.

As said above, don't bother adding category in the url.
yourdomain.com/page-about-something/ is what I would go with.

This question goes to all 3 of you:
Do you mean that I should only change the permalink structure (remove category slugs from url) or do you mean that I shall not assign categories to the pages at all?

This leads me to the next question: If I remove the category slug from the permalink structure but have those pages assigned to categories will google still understand that they are linked to the categories?

Well gents, guess its time to fuck up my Permalink structure, this is gonna be painful.

What are you planning to do? Remove category prefixes or do a silo structure?

The reason is use pages for static, and posts for new blog posts, is you can add categories on Wordpress for posts, you can't for pages.

You can assign a parent to the wordpress pages and then it creates a permalink structure like with post categories. But if you do this the "category" page is just empty which is a bit strange.

With post type the Author is always displayed which looks a bit weird for an encyclopedia... so Im still not sure whats best to do. Both have disadvantages.

 

[MaxGuard]

It doesn't matter. You can use whatever helps you manage them easier. It's just a CMS thing, google doesn't care about that.

 

[jeffro89]

Infact fuck it!
My competitors are on page one + number 1 spot, with URL structures 4 to 5 levels deep. (I initially copied my competitors structure - I am on page two! with my long structures)
I will focus on this 75 character shit on next project.
Im gonna treat my shitty structures as an experiment. The next one will have all short URLS and we shall see...​

 

[nichexposure]

This question goes to all 3 of you:
Do you mean that I should only change the permalink structure (remove category slugs from url) or do you mean that I shall not assign categories to the pages at all?

This leads me to the next question: If I remove the category slug from the permalink structure but have those pages assigned to categories will google still understand that they are linked to the categories?

Why do you want to put the category into your URL? For better silo and understanding? You can do it no issue. But don't make it way too long and increase your click depth. Most of the websites are keep it simple and not using the category. In recent times I did a test run for one of my websites. What I did -

mywebsite.com/category1/best-product-keyword1
mywebsite.com/category1/how-clean-product1

mywebsite.com/category2/best-product-keyword2
mywebsite.com/category2/how-to-maintain-product2

So the buying guide and related informative articles all set under the specific category. If you are planning a big website then check this website - https://www.toolnerds.com/. You can see how they use the URL for better siloing. But without proper planning, you might mess it up. So think before implementing it.

 

[robo901]

Why do you want to put the category into your URL? For better silo and understanding? Most of the websites are keep it simple and not using the category.

The only reason why I consider to do it is to make google happy (get better seo results) + the best competitor in my niche has it like this (I know this doesnt mean that it wouldnt work without category).

Thats why I need an answer to this question: If I remove the category slug from the permalink structure but have those pages assigned to categories will google still understand that they are linked to the categories?

 

[nichexposure]

If I remove the category slug from the permalink structure but have those pages assigned to categories will google still understand that they are linked to the categories?

It will....most of the sites set according to this way.

 

[robo901]

It will....most of the sites set according to this way.

1. That means, if I choose to not include the categories in the urls, and I want to change my site structure later I can change categories/add sub categories without affecting SEO (as the URL stays the same), right?

2. For example if I have built backlinks to this URL:

example.com/blabla
(which is internally example.com/category-blue/blabla)
and then change it to: example.com/category-red/blabla
(URL stays the same)

What would mean this for SEO?