Creating Posts

This guide walks through how to create and publish a post, including setting up post details, selecting a starter pattern, and building your post content.

About posts

Posts are used to publish time-based content like blog entries, news updates, or articles.

They’re designed for content that grows over time and is typically displayed by most recent. Posts often include a publish date and author, and are organized using categories and tags to help readers explore related content.

If your site includes a blog, news section, or articles — you’ll be working with posts.

Create a new post

  1. Go to Posts → Add New to open the Block Editor.
  2. Depending on your site, you may see one or more starter patterns. These act as your post template — providing a pre-built layout and structure
  • Choose the most appropriate pattern to get started
  • Starter patterns include layout, structure, and placeholder content
  • You can edit any part of the pattern as needed
  1. Then, enter your Post Title at the top of the editor.

Post setup

Before building your content, review the Post settings in the right sidebar. These settings control how your post appears, how it’s organized, and how it’s displayed in listings and across your site.

In the Post tab:

  • Featured image: Add an image that represents your post. This is often used in listings, previews, and social sharing
  • Excerpt: Write a short summary of the post. This is used in listings and previews. If left blank, one will be generated automatically — but writing your own is recommended
  • Slug (URL): This is the URL for your post, automatically generated from the title. You can edit it to make it shorter and easier to read, especially if your title is long
  • Status: Keep the post as Draft until you’re ready to publish
  • Author: Select the appropriate author if publishing on behalf of someone else
  • Categories: Select or create a category. If multiple categories are used, choose a Primary category
  • Tags: Add relevant tags to help organize content. Use tags consistently across posts

Build your post content

Starter patterns provide a full post structure with placeholder content. This helps keep layouts consistent and speeds up your workflow.

Open List View to see how your post is organized. Most layouts use Group blocks to organize key sections, including:

  • Post Header (title and post details)
  • Post Content (main body of the post)
  • Post Footer (tags, author, social sharing)
  • Related posts

Many of these sections are partially or fully dynamic, meaning they are automatically populated from your post settings. Focus your time on the areas that require manual content.

Focus on the main content

Most of your work will happen in the post content section.

Posts typically use simple, readable content blocks such as Paragraph, Heading, Image, Gallery, Quote, and List. Use headings and spacing to break up content and make it easy to scan.

If your content is created in another tool (like Google Docs or Microsoft Word), you can paste it into the editor to get started. After pasting:

  • Review and clean up formatting
  • Apply the correct heading structure
  • Replace or adjust images and media as needed

The editor is designed to help you refine and structure your content — not just display it.

Focus on building clear sections, using headings to guide readers, and keeping content easy to read across all devices.

How post settings affect content

Some blocks are connected to your post settings. Updating these settings will update the content across your post.

  • A Featured Image block will display the image set in the sidebar
  • Post details (author, date, categories, tags) are often displayed automatically

Use patterns as a starting point

Starter patterns are designed to be used with minimal changes. They help maintain a consistent design and reduce the need to build layouts from scratch.

However, every post is fully editable:

  • Add, remove, or rearrange blocks
  • Customize layouts when needed
  • Extend beyond the default structure

Expect variation in your site

This guide focused on a standard post layout, but your site may include additional layout options or features depending on how it was designed.

For example, your posts may include:

  • Background images
  • Video or embedded content
  • Forms or calls to action
  • Sidebar layouts

Not every post will use all of these elements. Use the patterns and examples within your site as a guide for how posts should be structured and styled.

Save draft and publish

Click Save draft in the top toolbar to save your progress regularly.

When you’re ready to publish:

  • Click Publish to make the post live

To publish automatically at a later date and time:

  • Set a future publish date in the sidebar
  • Click Schedule

You can also set a past publish date if needed. The publish date is often visible to readers, so choose it intentionally.

Posts work closely with:

  • Categories and tags for organization
  • Archive templates that display post listings by date or category
  • Related Posts block for connecting content
  • Query Loop block for creating custom lists of posts with more control

Best practices

Start with the structure

Use starter patterns to guide layout and structure instead of building from scratch.

Focus on readability

Use headings, short paragraphs, and spacing to make content easy to scan.

Write your excerpt intentionally

This is often the first thing readers see in listings — make it clear and engaging.

Use categories and tags consistently

A consistent structure helps keep your content organized and easier to navigate.

  1. WordPress.org Creating Pages documentation – Please note that your implementation may include customizations that affect available settings or behavior.