The ability to create content quickly is a strength of WordPress. Install the content management system (CMS), configure some settings, and start writing. That’s all there is to it – sort of.
If your website has a lot of content, you’ll want to think about how it’s organized first. Without proper care, pages and posts can become a mess on the dashboard. Not only does it make it harder to find a particular item later, but it’s also a pain to reorganize after the fact.
That’s why it pays to have a plan. By mapping out your requirements at the start of a project, you will be able to logically store content. It looks professional, helps with SEO, and will probably reduce your stress levels. What don’t you like?
Today, we’ll share some tips to help you organize content effectively within WordPress. On with us!
What is a Page? What is a Job?
The default WordPress installation supports both Pages and Posts. Each has specific use cases, and they are not easily interchangeable. This can trip even experienced users. Therefore, some key differences are worth mentioning.
Pages which is focused on independent content. For example, a website may have a About us a page containing a biography or a Contact a page that includes a form.
These items may have parent/child relationships with other pages. Considering our example, the Contact each business site may have child pages.
post it is generally best to create a collection of similar content. If your website has a blog or you need to publish news items, the posts are a perfect fit.
They can also be sorted into categories and tags, which help organize content by topic. A job can be multiples of each, making it easier to reduce large amounts.
Use Custom Post Types for Niche Content
Pages and Posts, while powerful, are fairly generic in terms of labeling. Consider having all your e-commerce products live with press releases in the Posts area. While technically possible, it can be confusing to manage content – especially if you’re giving the site to a client.
That’s where custom job types and taxonomies come in handy. Functionally, they are no different than Pages and Posts. But they allow for the housing and organization of the site’s niche content in a highly customized way.
WooCommerce is a great example of these features in action. Install the eCommerce plugin and you’ll see a post type for Products appear in the WordPress admin menu. In addition, they can be further organized through custom taxonomies (product categories and tags).
Using custom job types and taxonomies creates a more intuitive management experience. When each type of content has a specific name and place, it’s easier to find, edit and add to it. It’s a level of flexibility that you can’t get by lumping everything into standard content types.
In addition, search engine optimization becomes simpler. You can focus on a certain topic and implement structured data that accurately represents products, events, or anything else you want.
The benefits of “custom custom” may lead you to traditional jobs altogether.
Benefit from Parent/Child Relationships
As we mentioned, WordPress pages are capable of parent / child relationships. Custom job types can do that too – if they are configured to use them.
This creates a hierarchy that makes it easier to find and manage related content within WordPress. Likewise, it establishes consistency in your site’s URL structure – another element to boost your SEO.
For sites with dozens (or hundreds) of pages, parent-child relationships are lifesavers. This method organizes the Pages listing screen according to those relationships. Without them, you might be scrolling through several screens trying to find the proverbial needle in a haystack.
When should you use these relationships? A good rule of thumb is to group pages that have something in common.
One method involves mimicking your site’s menu structure. If you have multi-level menus, for example, you can set parent/child relationships that reflect this setting.
In practice, it means that the About us a page could act as the parent of all sub-pages in that navigation tab. With that, the listing and URLs follow a pattern. For example:
- About us (parent –
/about-us/) - – Mission Statement (a child –
/about-us/mission-statement/) - – Leadership (a child –
/about-us/leadership/) - – Team (a child –
/about-us/staff/)
By organizing your content equally on the front end and the back end, you’re simplifying the experience and making changes in the future.
Keep your WordPress Content neat and tidy
While creating content with WordPress is pretty easy, keeping things organized isn’t as obvious. And a bit of carelessness here can cause a lot of frustration down the line.
Amazingly, WordPress offers features that help you keep things neat and tidy. Standard Pages and Posts, as well as custom post types and parent/child relationships allow you to organize content in any way you choose.
The key is to plan ahead. This requires careful consideration to determine what content will be on your site and how best to organize it.
It takes a bit of work to get it right. However, it is well worth the effort. The reward is a website where everything has its place.
