Should Your About Me Be a Post or a Page?
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
~Shell