Should Your About Me Be a Post or a Page?

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6.7K followers

I have always created my About Me information as pages. It was even given in the early training modules to do that. However, I have noticed several About Me pages (both from members' websites and outside of WA) that are setting up the About Me as posts.

I also seem to remember some discussions about it here (or maybe elsewhere, not sure?). I didn't think much of it at the time. Now, however, I was revamping one of my About Me pages and noticed that there was no section for comments, which makes sense because pages don't normally have comment sections. This triggered in my brain that is what I read about as to the reason to set the About Me as a post.

If you notice your Google Analytics, the sections that get the most visits are your home page and your About Me page. This may not be true for every website. But, it is true for most of the websites I have maintained over the years. This means it's a huge opportunity to get comments if your About Me page is a post rather than a page.

I suppose we could find a plugin that is capable of displaying comments on pages. But, that means yet another plugin to maintain.

I completed several changes to my About Me page and then wished I had my revelation before I made all those changes. I was about to do the copy-and-paste routine when I thought, why not check to see if there is a plugin? I found one from WordPress called Post Type Switcher. I used it and it worked like a charm.

Now you may be thinking that this is yet another plugin. However, once you use this, you can deactivate it or delete it entirely. Some plugins are needed only for back end operations and don't need to be running all the time. This isn't true with every plugin that affects the back end, by the way. I did check this one though. And, when I deactivated it, the About Me stayed as a post and did not revert.

Another issue is pages can be easily added to menus. You simply drag the page into whichever menus you want and click the save button. There is an obvious reason to keep your About Me as part of the top menu. If you decide to make your About Me a post, then you can add a custom menu item for the post. Kyle has training on how to do this here:

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/online-entrepreneur...


A member here (@Biggsta) created training on how to use the Post Type Switcher plugin. It's easy but, he shows everything step-by-step for anyone needed extra help. Here is the link:

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/how-to-change-a-pos...


I could be wrong on this, but this should have little impact on your SEO since the name of the post and page are going to be the same and you are going to keep it as a menu item. Maybe there will be a short-term impact of a day or so. But, I don't think it will have any lasting negative impact. If anyone has insight about this, feel free to chime in. This is not an issue if you had your About Me page or post in draft mode and never published it to begin with.

Best Regards,

Jim

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Recent Comments

31

My About Me has always been a page too. I think it depends on the Theme whether comments can be added onto page. Since pages are mainly used for ‘evergreen’ information, your about me page will very rarely change, hence the reason to use as a page.
I’m from the old school so this is my understanding and what I recommend.
Good question, well worth the discussion.
Ken

I've always done it as a page, then I may do a separate "intro" style post as my very first blog entry. It's supposed to be a general information page to the visitor, so not sure why you would want visitors to comment on it like they do on your blog content.

Mine is a page but does have comments on it. Not sure if it’s my theme or if I asked for comments through site comments here at WA.
All my pages have comments actually so it might be the theme that allows them.
With Grace and Gratitude
Karen

I personally like it to be a page so it shows up in my menu.
Kasey

Hey Kasey, it's easy to add posts onto menus. However, as David (@DEversley) has shown, it's also easy to enable comments on pages, which I wasn't aware of before writing this.
Best Regards,
Jim

We learn something new everyday :)

Hi Jim!
Even though I have been through the training, I missed the part about creating it as a post until only this morning :).
However, I prefer it as a page with a CTA and maybe even a contact button. I think it should be. There is a reason it's called a page...reserved for static content.
If I can be convinced otherwise though, I am always flexible.

To allow comments on a page see attachment.

David

Hey David, you learn something new everyday. I never use the Quick Edit feature so that's probably why I never saw that option. Thanks, Jim

You are welcome, Jim!

Personally Jim I prefer to keep my About Me as a page. I do not plan to make any changes for the foreseeable future. By placing my email address at the bottom I will receive any questions or comments people wish to leave.

Thanx for this Jim. The training I followed said to have the about me page as a post, so people could comment. I didn't think anyone would, but followed the training. Much to my surprise, I actually have had people comment on my about me page, so I'm glad I set it up this way
~Shell

As RDScherer states, the training said to make your about me page be a post but I personally have my about me page as a page. So, it would be based on your preferences really.

The current training suggests the About Me be a post. Receiving comments being the reason.

I always go pages for About Me. I have the ability to turn comments off and on for pages as well of posts. I would have presumed you have the same unless it is a plugin I have loaded.

Hey Tony, I could be wrong on this as well but I think it would be a theme or plugin that controls whether comments are displayed. I just checked and did not see any provision until I enabled Post Type Switcher. Perhaps the functionality is embedded in the theme you are using or it could be a plugin? I'll have to explore this further.
Bets Regards,
Jim

That seems odd, I have set up a number of sites all with different themes so maybe I got lucky and picked the right themes

Could be a setting that I haven't seen before. Do you do it right from the edit page/post? When I install the plugin it adds a drop down near the Publish section for selecting post or page. When I deactivate that option is gone.

Perhaps you use the same plugins for each site and it's embedded in one of your plugins?

I can turn comments on / off for posts and pages, I think it's a feature of the Genesis framework and theme I am using though,

Hey Colm, yeah, I don't believe it's native to WordPress. Again, I could be wrong but I have never seen anything that allows switching natively.

I find it on the quick edit section of the page

Hey Tony, David (@DEversley) alerted me to this option. Thanks, Jim

Cool, I see that there ... thanks, good to know!

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