Create a Post in WordPress (Gutenberg)

Estimated reading: 11 minutes 181 views Contributors

Summary: This guide will help you to create posts in WordPress using the Gutenberg editor.

If you are a beginner, one of the first things you’ll need to learn is how to create a WordPress post and adding content to your website is done by publishing posts in WordPress.

Posting engaging content allows you to distinguish your brand and grab your visitors’ attention. In other words, WordPress posts are the substance of the customer experience on your website, even if you are not selling goods.

This tutorial will explain what a WordPress post is and the difference between WordPress pages vs. posts, plus how to post or manage your posts in WordPress.

What is a Post in WordPress?

A post in WordPress is a piece of blog content that you add to your site, like articles posted on a page. Posts are part of your site’s dynamic content, and WordPress usually lists them in reverse chronological order.

You can organize your posts in WordPress with categories and tags, date them, or pin them to a page on your website.

WordPress posts on your pages are a big part of your Content Marketing strategy and aid in defining a unique brand viewpoint. Providing quality and in-depth content consistently keeps your customers engaged.

WordPress Post vs Page

There is a fundamental difference between pages and posts on WordPress.

In essence, WordPress pages are static content, as they form the foundation of your website. Usually, they hold generic content like your Home page, About us, Contact us page, or pages containing your Terms of Service and Privacy policies.

The content types are presented with the so-called Post types in WordPress. There are default WordPress post types, and developers can create custom post types as well. The default WordPress post types are as follows:

Post – WordPress posts are dynamic and time-sensitive content that informs the reader on a particular topic. WordPress displays them in reverse chronological order, meaning the last post is shown first on your blog page. They can be sorted with categories and tags, archived, and streamed in a feed. Post comments are enabled by default.
Page – Pages in WordPress are generally the static part of your website. You may create promotional pages available only upon a marketing or advertising campaign. Still, they shouldn’t be dated as it wouldn’t be appropriate. WordPress pages can’t be categorized but can be organized in a hierarchy (parent/child) structure.
Attachments – These are usually images, media content, or file linking in your content; they have names and descriptions. Image attachments include metadata like file size, location, thumbnails, etc.
Revision – WordPress post revisions are the temporary auto-saved versions of your posts, which you can restore if you want to undo a recent change. Post revisions are saved every 60 seconds, so if anything happens, you can revert back to the last saved revision. Additionally, every time you save, update or publish a post, a permanent revision is stored in your WordPress database.
Navigation menu – Navigational menus are customisable menus you add to your theme. You can add posts, pages, categories, and URLs to your navigation.
Block templates – The Gutenberg block editor allows you to create reusable blocks of content you can use again in other posts or pages. They are useful for keeping your content’s design consistent.
Template parts – Templates in WordPress are block types used for creating a structure for your website – like header, footer, etc. You can find the template parts in the block inserter while in template editing mode.

Apart from the default post types in WordPress, you can also create Custom post types. The recommendation is to use a plugin for crafting custom post types. For example, one of the most popular plugins for creating custom post types is WooCommerce. It allows you to add ‘product’ post types to your e-commerce.

Now that we examined the different WordPress post types, we can proceed with the practical part of creating a WordPress post.

How to Post on WordPress

Initially, the intent behind WordPress was to publish blog posts, but eventually, it evolved into a robust CMS. Still, posting is one of the key strategies for attracting visitors to your WordPress content.

To start creating your first post in WordPress, you should login to your Dashboard and navigate to Posts > Add new

Depending on your WordPress version or preference, you can craft posts in WordPress using the Gutenberg Block Editor (from version 5.0 and up) or the Classic editor (all versions up to 5.0).

Create a Post in WordPress with Gutenberg

WordPress version 5.0 introduced the Gutenberg block editor in 2018 as the default editor, substituting the Classic Editor. The block editor is an intuitive software allowing you to craft rich, customized content. The best part is that you can create outstanding multimedia content with little to no coding skills.

One of the real perks of Gutenberg is that it also includes a drag-and-drop functionality. You can also create reusable and interchangeable content blocks with various formats. These reusable blocks can help speed up future content creation and enhance design consistency across pages.

This section will guide you through the steps for crafting a post on WordPress using Gutenberg, so read on.

Once you load the block editor’s workspace, you can start creating your post. Gutenberg loads on a full screen mode by default to help you focus on your work without distractions. You can access the post screen Options kebab menu in the top page toolbar.

With it, you can deactivate the fullscreen more or use a spotlight mode to focus on the block separately.

Here, you can switch between the Visual and Code editor, allowing you to add HTML code directly to the post. There are tools available to manage your content blocks or create shortcuts.

The Preferences button launches another menu, where you can select from available panels to include in your Post Settings Menu.

Add a Title

Choosing a title for your post is essential since it makes it stand out from the crowd. You should carefully compose a title for your post, ensuring that it is enticing for your readers. A WordPress post title should be intriguing and eye-catching since this is your visitors’ first impression of your post.

Furthermore, it is good to know that Search Engines (like Google) are also parsing the title of your post to display it upon a search request. Thus, you should remember that you need to capture your audience’s attention along with that of search engines.

In order for Google to display your headline in full, it shouldn’t be longer than 60 characters. According to recent studies, the average attention span has fallen to just 8 seconds. This is the amount of time you have to encourage your visitors to interact with your content.

Your title is automatically assigned as the URL slug for your post, which is a part of your post’s permalink.

Thus, make sure to keep it short and to the point by removing any “stop words” like “in,” “from,” “to,” etc.

Content Blocks

Next, you should start creating your post within content blocks.

A content block can be a paragraph of text, an embedded video, an image, an infographic, a gallery, or a social media widget.

To launch the contextual block menu, type “/” as shown in the screenshot below.

Alternatively, you can use the Toggle block inserter by clicking the “+” sign in the upper left corner of the page.

The following options are available to choose from when creating content blocks:

Text – With this block, you can add different text formats like paragraphs, headings, lists, quotes, or tables. It is up to you to make your post more appealing to the visitor; text format variety can help with that.
Media – To make your content even more engaging, you can add media blocks with images, audio, video, or galleries relevant to your post.

Design – This type of block allows you to structure your post in columns, add buttons or page breaks, etc.

Widgets – You can also use various widgets to share your latest posts, add a calendar, or a search toggle.

Theme – The theme group of blocks allows you to add post excerpts, featured images, post comment forms, or post author’s bio. The variety of block types you can add here depends on the widgets that come with your WordPress theme.

Embeds – With these blocks, you can embed content from other sources like social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.)

Gutenberg allows you to control each block’s colours, alignment, and width so you can customize your WordPress post. To personalize your post’s outlook, check out the menu on the right-hand side of the block editor workspace.

Hovering over any block will launch the Options menu. With it, you can move blocks up and down in the post, format, or align them. Click on the Drag button to drag a block and place it where you see fit by dropping it.

Add Media to your Post

Making a visual statement by adding media to your WordPress post is a great way to gain visibility and interact with your visitors.

Using the Toggle block inserter, you can add media like galleries, images, videos, or audio files related to your post.

You can upload media files from your Media Library, insert from URL or even upload directly to the post.

Post Categories & Tags

Categories and Tags are the main techniques to organise your posts to make their topics clear to the visitor from the start. Categories should be descriptive but straight to the point aiming to outline the structure of your content.

Organizing your WordPress posts in categories helps your audience to get around your site easily. If you intend to create a large blog site, you should take care of your content’s structure so that visitors can sort through it hassle-free.

Click on the Category module under Post in the right-hand sidebar to get the post in WordPress assigned to a category. Check the box next to the category you want this post added to or create a new one from the respective button.

Tags are usually short one or two words from your content’s related keywords. WordPress tags help your visitors to find the posts on your site corresponding to their search intent.

To add tags to your post content, you can use the Tags module in the sidebar by typing a keyword and clicking Enter.

Add a Featured Image to your WordPress Post

A Featured image is the main image representing a WordPress post, also known as a post thumbnail.

This is the image that shows along with a shared link of your post; thus, it plays an important role in your WordPress SEO.

To add a featured image for your WordPress post with Gutenberg, click on the Featured image drop-down menu from the right sidebar.

Click on the Set Featured Image button and add an appropriate image from your Media library or upload a new one.

Post Publishing Options

The post publishing options are under the Summary section in the Post tab of the right sidebar.

First comes the Visibility preference, where you can select whether your post should be public, private, or password protected.

You can also select a specific time and date you want your post published by clicking the respective text link next to Publish.

If you are not ready to publish just yet or you haven’t decided on that part, you can leave it for later.

Change the Post URL Slug

As mentioned above, WordPress automatically assigns your post title as your URL slug.

Sometimes, titles may be long, which wouldn’t look so good for a post slug in terms of SEO optimization. Thus, you may need to change the post’s URL slug to comply with the search engine algorithm preferences.

To edit your post’s URL slug (permalink), check the Summary tab of the right sidebar and click on the URL radio button. Alter your URL slug from the available field and click away so it can be saved.

Change the WordPress Post Author

Further down in the sidebar’s Summary section, you can change the post’s author name.

The author’s name must be present in your registered WordPress users, so you can select it from the corresponding drop-down.

WordPress Post Comments

Under the Discussion section, you can check the box if you want readers to comment on your WordPress post.

From this comments section, you can also allow pingbacks and trackbacks from your blog post.

Preview & Publish your WordPress Post

You can click the Save draft button if you’ve reached a point in your post when you need a break.

This way, all your changes so far will be stored, and you will be able to proceed from where you left off.

When you are ready with your WordPress post, you can Preview it from the respective button to see how it looks on your website.

Then if you are pleased with the results, publish it from the Publish button in the upper right corner.

That’s it, your post is now available on your WordPress site, and your visitors can enjoy it.

Next Century

Did You Know?