Pages are the permanent backbone of a WordPress site — the About Us, Services, Contact and Privacy Policy that visitors expect to find. Unlike blog posts, pages are not tied to a date, do not appear in your RSS feed, and can be organised into hierarchical parent-child relationships. Getting the page structure right early saves hours of reorganisation later. This guide walks through creating pages in the Block Editor, explains the page attributes that change how they display and where they live, lists the essential pages every UK business website needs, and covers scheduling, drafts and visibility options.
What WordPress pages are · Pages vs posts: the key differences · Creating a new page step by step · Page attributes: templates, hierarchy, featured images · Publishing, scheduling and visibility · Essential pages for a UK business website · Organising pages with parent-child hierarchy · Editing and updating existing pages · Page-level SEO basics · Frequently asked questions
In WordPress, pages are used for static, evergreen content — material that does not change often and does not belong in a chronological feed. Pages live outside your blog archive; they are not tagged, categorised or dated (the date still exists in the database but is not surfaced). They form the permanent navigation of your site.
Typical pages on a UK business site: Home, About, Services, Team, Case Studies, Pricing, Contact, Privacy Policy, Terms and Conditions, Cookie Policy. A WooCommerce site adds: Shop, Basket, Checkout, My Account.
| Aspect | Pages | Posts |
|---|---|---|
| Time-based | No — no publish date shown by default | Yes — date-ordered, appears in feeds |
| Categories and tags | Not supported by default | Supported (for organisation and filtering) |
| Hierarchy | Yes — parent/child relationships | No hierarchy |
| RSS feed | Not included | Included |
| Comments | Typically disabled | Enabled by default |
| Templates | Multiple page templates per theme | Single post template |
| Typical use | About, Contact, Services, Legal | Blog entries, news, announcements |
Rule of thumb: if the content is permanent and does not belong in a dated feed, use a page. If it is a regular update, news item or article, use a post.
Pages > Add New Page. The Block Editor opens with a blank canvas and a placeholder for the title.
Click the title area and type your page title (e.g. "About Us", "Our Services"). WordPress generates the URL slug automatically from the title. You can customise the slug later via the Settings sidebar.
Click the + (Block Inserter) to browse blocks. Common blocks for pages:
Pro tip: type / at the start of an empty block and a search menu appears — /heading, /image, /table are faster than clicking the + inserter.
Click the gear icon top-right to open the Settings sidebar. Under the Page tab:
about, not about-us-our-company-story).Click Preview to see the page on the front end without publishing. When satisfied, click Publish. WordPress asks for confirmation (a safety check); click Publish again. The page is live.
Assigns a parent to create a hierarchical relationship. If "Board of Directors" is a child of "About Us", the URL becomes /about-us/board-of-directors/. This structure helps both visitors and search engines understand your site.
Most themes ship with several templates:
Block themes expose template options through the Full Site Editor's template creation system.
Upload or pick from the media library. Used for:
Recommended featured image size: 1200 × 630 pixels for Facebook/LinkedIn; 1200 × 675 for Twitter. Modern themes handle both automatically.
Numeric value controlling sequence in auto-generated menus and page lists. Page with order 1 appears first, 10 later, etc. Useful for controlling display order of sibling pages under the same parent.
Enable or disable comments on this page. For static pages (About, Services, Legal), comments are almost always disabled.
Click Publish. Page becomes public instantly.
Save Draft stores the page without publishing. Drafts appear under Pages > All Pages and can be edited later. Autosave runs every minute so you rarely lose work.
In the Settings sidebar, click the date next to Publish. Pick a future date and time. The Publish button changes to Schedule. Click Schedule. WordPress publishes the page automatically at the scheduled moment. Useful for launches, sales, announcements tied to a specific date.
A baseline every professional UK business website should have.
| Page | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Home | Main landing page. Set as the static front page in Settings > Reading. Clearly communicate who you are and what you offer. |
| About Us | Business story, team, values. Builds trust with potential UK customers. |
| Services / Products | What you provide. Use sub-pages for each service if you offer several. |
| Case Studies / Portfolio | Evidence of your work. Optional but powerful for B2B sites. |
| Pricing | Even rough pricing indicators reduce tire-kicker enquiries. |
| Contact | Address, phone, email, contact form. Add a map if you have a physical location. UK businesses: include Companies House number and VAT number in the footer. |
| Privacy Policy | Required under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. WordPress generates a template at Settings > Privacy; customise for your actual practices. |
| Terms and Conditions | Rules for using your website and buying your services. Essential for shops and service providers. |
| Cookie Policy | Explain cookies used. ICO guidance under PECR requires notifying visitors about non-essential cookies and obtaining consent. |
| Accessibility Statement | Required for public-sector sites; recommended for all UK sites under Equality Act 2010 duty. |
| 404 Page | Custom "page not found" page with navigation to help visitors recover from a dead link. |
Add further pages as your business grows — FAQ, Blog index, Careers, Press, Partners, Reviews.
Nested page structures help visitors and Google understand your site's organisation.
| Parent | Child | URL |
|---|---|---|
| Services | — | /services/ |
| Services | Web design | /services/web-design/ |
| Services | SEO | /services/seo/ |
| Services | Consulting | /services/consulting/ |
| Services » Web design | E-commerce | /services/web-design/ecommerce/ |
To set a parent, open the child page in the editor, open the Settings sidebar, and pick the parent from the dropdown. The URL slug updates automatically.
WordPress supports arbitrary nesting depth but three levels is the practical maximum. Beyond that, URLs become cumbersome and navigation confusing. If you need deeper structure, reconsider whether your content is really organised correctly.
The parent-child hierarchy does not automatically appear in the navigation menu — you still choose what to show in the menu via Appearance > Menus or the Navigation block. Typically you would mirror the parent-child structure in the menu, but you have freedom to deviate where useful (e.g. promote a specific service to the main menu even if it is technically a child page).
Pages > All Pages lists every page with status (Published, Draft, Scheduled, Pending Review). Hover a page for Edit, Quick Edit, Trash, View.
Inline editor for title, slug, date, parent, template, author, password, status and comments toggle. Handy for bulk metadata changes without opening each page fully.
Tick multiple pages, choose Bulk actions > Edit. Change parent, template, author, comments setting across many pages at once.
WordPress saves a revision every time you save or auto-save a page. Click Revisions in the Settings sidebar to compare versions and restore an earlier one. Useful if a change goes wrong or an editor overwrites your work.
Deleting a page sends it to the Trash. Items in the Trash can be restored for 30 days, after which WordPress purges them permanently. Go to Pages > All Pages > Trash to restore.
Even without a dedicated SEO plugin, a few habits improve page SEO:
/services/web-design/ beats /our-comprehensive-web-design-and-development-services/.With Yoast SEO or Rank Math installed, you also get meta title, meta description, canonical URL, Open Graph and schema markup controls per page. See our SEO guide.
What is the difference between a page and a post?
Pages are for permanent, evergreen content (About, Contact, Services). Posts are for dated content (blog articles, news). Pages support hierarchy; posts support categories and tags.
Can I change a post into a page or vice versa?
Not directly through the dashboard. Use the Post Type Switcher plugin to convert between types while preserving content.
How many pages can a WordPress site have?
Technically unlimited. Practically, large sites with thousands of pages need good hierarchy, search and performance tuning. smartxhosting.uk handles sites with thousands of pages comfortably thanks to LiteSpeed and Redis.
What is the Home page?
The page visitors see when they visit the root URL of your site. WordPress offers two modes: latest blog posts (default, suits blogs) or a static page (suits businesses). Set in Settings > Reading.
Do pages need featured images?
Not required, but recommended for the few pages likely to be shared on social media (Home, Services, flagship Case Studies). The featured image becomes the Open Graph image when the page URL is pasted into Facebook, LinkedIn or Slack.
Why is my new page not appearing in the menu?
WordPress does not auto-add new pages to the menu. Go to Appearance > Menus (classic theme) or the Full Site Editor's Navigation block (block theme) and add the page manually.
Can I hide a page from search engines?
Yes. In Yoast SEO or Rank Math, set the page to noindex. Or use WordPress's built-in Privacy feature (Private or Password-protected) to restrict access entirely.
How do I create a landing page?
Pick a Landing Page or Blank Canvas template (most themes include one) to hide the default header and footer. Build the page with Cover, Columns, Buttons and media blocks. Alternatively, plugins like SeedProd or Elementor provide purpose-built landing page builders.
Why does my published page not show recent changes?
Usually caching. Clear LiteSpeed Cache in WordPress (LiteSpeed Cache > Toolbox > Purge All), clear browser cache (hard refresh Ctrl+F5), purge CDN if using Cloudflare.
Can I duplicate a page to use as a template?
Yes, with a plugin like Duplicate Page or Yoast Duplicate Post. One click copies the page's content, settings and metadata to a new draft.
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