News!! Blogger's Static Pages Are More Than Occupation Than They're Worth

Blogger's "static" or stand-alone pages bring close benefits - but also a number of disadvantages. Use them sparingly!

Overview:

Previously I've described the Pages feature that Blogger introduced inwards February 2010, inwards add-on to the differences between Pages inwards add-on to Posts.

There are times when stand-alone Pages are a handy feature.

But overall I've decided that the disadvantages are a lot greater than the advantages. From forthwith on, whatsoever blogs that I component subdivision on testament larn horizontal card bars made from Link-list gadget, or maybe just menus made with HTML, inwards add-on to the vast mass of content testament acquire out of absence into Posts non Pages.

Here's why.

The Page entitle is the Menu-bar value

When y'all lot create a page (Dashboard > Pages > New Page), y'all lot can

Give it a title,
Write the content,
Allow viewer comments or not
Handle <br />'s (or not)
Say whether whatsoever HTML inwards the page is interpreted (ie used to ascendency the display), or displayed (the code vales, non their effects, are e'er shown).

Blogger has measure rules for how the items that y'all lot come upwardly inwards are turned into HTML. In particular, the Page-title (and Post-title too) is given a H3 (header three) tag. And this special tag is existent significant to the search-engines, thus bloggers who attending close whether the search-engines notice their spider spider web log or non pay quite a flake of attending to the words inwards the title.

The locomote is that the Page entitle is also the value that's topographic point on the card bar if y'all lot are giving access to your Pages with the Pages-gadget (and most people are):

That's ok, if y'all lot utilization only a short-ish titles.

The HTML behind the Pages gadget used an un-ordered list: this it what lets it display horizontally if it's inwards the header, inwards add-on to vertically if it's inwards the sidebar. But when it's horizontal, if the values are longer than 1 trace of piece of work concern thus it just spills onto the following line. This tin give the sack paw off if a viewer had a depression enshroud resolution - or if you've used lots of search-engine friendly key-words inwards the Page-titles:

And there's the crux of the problem: since the Page-title is the H3 header, it needs to alive on long inwards add-on to descriptive to give the search engines a skillful hazard of finding your page. But larn inwards long, inwards add-on to the Pages gadget looks awful, inwards add-on to is confusing for viewers.

Of class of education I could utilization Pages, inwards add-on to build a menu-bar to access them using a linked-list gadget (or fifty-fifty just HTML for a table). But if I'm doing that, it's just as slowly to cook the menu-bar "items" out of Posts as it is from Pages - inwards add-on to using Posts avoids the disadvantages which Pages bring (eg non included inwards the RSS feed, no Labels, etc).

Other problems:

There are close other problems with Pages, including:

An unclear name:

Blogger decided to telephone telephone the characteristic that they introduced "Pages". Most help-article writers outside of Google used the phrase "static pages", to cook a clear distinction between these new "pages" inwards add-on to the existing primary page, layout-page, archive-page (not to refer the way that "page" refers to a enshroud inwards most websites). But inwards that identify are fifty-fifty thus dozens, maybe hundreds, of official assistance articles from Google, inwards add-on to unofficial ones from the remainder of us, that refer to "Pages" inwards the older screen-full-of-text sense.

User confusion:

New Blogger users meet Pages, inwards add-on to assume that it's possible to topographic point blog-posts onto the person pages, just like y'all lot tin give the sack topographic point content into pages inwards other websites. Some croak a lot of 4th dimension looking for ways to practise this - 4th dimension which IMHO would alive on ameliorate spent just adapting to Blogger's way of working, or moving to close other tool that has native dorsum upwards for classical web-pages if that's what they truly need.

RSS Feed:

Pages aren't included inwards a blog's RSS feed - a new page is non notified to Followers or feed-subscribers.

Backups:

When the characteristic was foremost introduced, Pages weren't included inwards exported blog-content files. So the only way to dorsum them up, or fifty-fifty transfer them to close other blog, was to manually imitate the contents. (This feels like the shape of thing that Google mightiness quietly set - I haven't tested to meet if they bring or not.)

No labels or date:

Static-pages don't bring Labels or dates, thus there's no way for them to alive on included inwards the display shown on Archive or Label pages. This also confuses close readers. It also way that a Page tin give the sack never alive on used as the target page for whatsoever of the measure tricks that tin give the sack alive on used to give your spider spider web log a "home page".

Conclusion:

None of the person problems were enough to cook me stop using Pages.

But the combined lawsuit of the SEO / header-display locomote inwards add-on to all the other issues way that I forthwith believe that

"Static-pages are work than they're worth."

I'll fifty-fifty thus utilization the page-gadget area inwards designer templates to cook my ain horizontal card bar, because I rather like the way that linked lists are formatted inwards most of the templates. I mightiness fifty-fifty make it await like I've topographic point posts into pages using this menu. And I'll happily utilization Pages to display the results of Google Custom Searches (since there's no indicate for these to alive on fed, backed-up etc)

But I won't alive on pointing to whatsoever new stand-alone pages made with the Posting > Edit Pages menu.

Blogger's Static-Pages feature

Putting Posts into your Pages

Google Custom Searches - putting 1 into your blog

The differences between Pages inwards add-on to Posts

Blogs, Blogger inwards add-on to bloggers; Post, Pages inwards add-on to Screens: close basic definitions

Giving your spider spider web log a "home page".

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