A blog is known by its posts, not pages, right?
Yes, but...
While posts are the life-blood of a blog, standalone pages give the blog the required background support. And they need not be updated too often.
Posts and pages both are technically webpages and have a unique URL of their own. Pages are those webpages that are not pushed down like posts when new matter is posted on the blog. Usually they do not have a time stamp and thus are eternal. In typical web design of blogs, such pages are not displayed in the main column where posts keep coming, but in special places where they are always visible.
Since the standalone pages have a unique personality, they quietly define your blog's standard and trustworthiness. The additional information the pages provide make the visitors stay on the blog longer. Some pages add to the blog's reputation by establishing the Blogger as trust-worthy. Therefore, you should not take the creation and placement of standalone pages lightly.
We use these pages usually for the following purposes:
Standalone pages do not pose problem of display unlike other design elements such as widgets. Static pages are best displayed as links or buttons on the homepage and within posts when they need to be cross-referenced. The menu bar just under the title is the best place for some such pages. Sidebar is also good for displaying standalone pages. From web design point of view, the last bar on the blog or website is the best place for linking pages relating to disclaimer and web policies as they need not take up prime space.
You should prominently display the 'About us', 'Contact us' and 'call to action' pages. There is no need to display the 'broken link' page.
Some bloggers like to make a static page as the homepage of the blog to give the blog the look of a website. That is a design choice but in our view it partly reduces the 'blogging' feel and serves no good purpose.
Wordpress (both CMS and blogging platform) and Blogger allow easy creation of static pages and customization of their placement from the dashboard.
Yes, but...
While posts are the life-blood of a blog, standalone pages give the blog the required background support. And they need not be updated too often.
What are the standalone pages on a blog and how to make best use of them?
Posts and pages both are technically webpages and have a unique URL of their own. Pages are those webpages that are not pushed down like posts when new matter is posted on the blog. Usually they do not have a time stamp and thus are eternal. In typical web design of blogs, such pages are not displayed in the main column where posts keep coming, but in special places where they are always visible.
Since the standalone pages have a unique personality, they quietly define your blog's standard and trustworthiness. The additional information the pages provide make the visitors stay on the blog longer. Some pages add to the blog's reputation by establishing the Blogger as trust-worthy. Therefore, you should not take the creation and placement of standalone pages lightly.
We use these pages usually for the following purposes:
- Giving information about the blogger and/ or the blog: Usually we call such a page as 'About us' page. It tells how the blog started, what all it contains, who all are behind the blog, what is its guiding principle and so on.
- Giving contact information: There could be a separate 'Contact us' page or the contact information could be part of the 'About us' page. Google says, blogs/ websites with a page on the owner's contact details are more trusted as compared to those whose owner remains hidden. The contact information includes URLs for specific purposes (e.g. customer service, product details, downloads), email ID, telephone number, physical address,)
- Giving background information about the topics covered in the blog: Since pages come and go, they do not stay on top of home page unless specially pinned. Pages, being Static, serve well as the storehouse of background information that does not change too often.
- Giving the visitor additional information on your product or service: Let us illustrate this with the example of an author blogger. There can be information about the book on sidebar and on posts, but if you want to share a chapter or take the visitor to your creative journey or give interesting information on characters/ locations, a page can be the best way to do that. Same goes for other products or services.
- Asking visitors to take action: Such a page is called 'call to action' or 'landing' page. A page comes handy when you want to hook the visitor - a potential client - to buy your product or take any other action (e.g download an ebook, subscribe to updates, refer your blog to a friend). Bloggers/ website owners who sell products and services often have a long promotional article full of pitch for purchase, testimonials, etc on the landing page.
- Providing manually curated resources: Many bloggers manually make a list of the best posts on the blog. Some give a list of external resources. Some produce an FAQ list.
- Providing specific information. Standalone pages come handy when you organize a web even or a real-life event or carry out a project. Standalone pages give all details of the project in one place.
- Giving website policies: You can put all policies such as privacy policy, cookie policy and comment policy on a separate page and link it to the homepage of your website/ blog. Similarly, disclaimers and disclosures about your content and conditions for using it can be included in that page.
- Guiding visitors in case of broken link: You should have a '404 error page' that is displayed when any webpage in your blog is not displayed due to misspelling or using wrong URL by the user or the webpage not being available due to some other error. This page should apologize for the inconvenience caused to the reader and guide him where to go from there.
Where to display static pages?
Standalone pages do not pose problem of display unlike other design elements such as widgets. Static pages are best displayed as links or buttons on the homepage and within posts when they need to be cross-referenced. The menu bar just under the title is the best place for some such pages. Sidebar is also good for displaying standalone pages. From web design point of view, the last bar on the blog or website is the best place for linking pages relating to disclaimer and web policies as they need not take up prime space.
You should prominently display the 'About us', 'Contact us' and 'call to action' pages. There is no need to display the 'broken link' page.
Some bloggers like to make a static page as the homepage of the blog to give the blog the look of a website. That is a design choice but in our view it partly reduces the 'blogging' feel and serves no good purpose.
Wordpress (both CMS and blogging platform) and Blogger allow easy creation of static pages and customization of their placement from the dashboard.
