What is a Parent Page in WordPress?

Hierarchical page structures are one of the best ways to organize content for both website visitors and search engines alike, but how does it work exactly?

If your company provides services like digital strategy, content creation and copywriting, these could all be organized as subpages under one parent page called’services.’ This way visitors will easily locate what they need when visiting.

What is a Parent Page?

Parent pages in WordPress allow you to organize your website’s content hierarchically, making it easier for visitors and search engines alike to understand its structure. This page acts as the starting point of multiple child pages or subpages nested underneath it, providing visitors and search engines alike an easier time navigating and comprehending your website’s structure.

Page hierarchies can also help your SEO, as they allow you to set up a permalink structure and target keyword-rich pages more effectively. For instance, if you offer services as part of a business offering several distinct ones then creating an overall parent page called “Services,” and individual subpages per service offered can help your website rank better for keywords related to these specific services.

Setting up parent and child pages in WordPress is straightforward: just create or edit a page and use its Attributes section to select its parent pages if any already exist and have been published. Just be mindful that only active pages can be selected as parents of other published ones!

Why Create a Parent Page?

Parent pages can help organize your website’s content into hierarchical structures and assist with navigation and SEO by offering visitors a clear path towards finding information they require.

When creating a page, in the Page Attributes menu you can choose a parent page as part of its creation process. This will add it into a hierarchy with that selected parent page and allow you to organize its contents using subpages under that particular parent page. You can then create child pages under it in order to organize content into silos on your site.

Parent Pages allow you to set one page as the home page and automatically make all other pages on your site child pages based on that one parent page. This feature is particularly helpful if you plan to use your home page as a navigational hub for the rest of your site; child pages will then appear grouped underneath their parent page in WordPress navigation bar for easier user experience and search engine optimization, plus inherit the URL slug of its parent page for easier discovery for visitors.

Differences Between a Parent Page and a Child Page

WordPress makes it easy to structure your website hierarchically with Parent Pages, allowing you to create top-level pages which contain multiple child pages nested underneath them. Child pages (also known as subpages) share similar content as their parent page but with reduced scope; both types of pages help organize your content into meaningful categories so it’s easier for visitors to locate what they need on your site.

Before creating a child page for it, first select its Parent Page using the drop-down menu in Page Attributes on your dashboard.

Your pages can also be ordered differently by assigning numeric values in the Page Attributes section, creating a more user-friendly and organized structure for both webmasters and visitors alike. Furthermore, this will boost SEO as it will make it simpler for bots to index your site.

When Should You Have A Parent And A Child Page?

Parent pages help organize your content hierarchically, making it easier for visitors to locate what they’re seeking as well as helping search engines better comprehend your site.

WordPress makes it easy to create new parent pages by selecting “parent page” as part of the permalink menu when creating or editing pages, and by choosing it again as part of Page Attributes when editing existing ones. Existing pages can also be turned into parents by selecting parent page under Page Attributes when editing them.

If your website features numerous pages, child pages can be extremely beneficial in organizing content in an effective manner and improving SEO. They should only be used if they add value to both your business and users – for instance, having one parent page per service offered, then subpages for each specific service to make finding information simpler while helping boost search engine results rankings.

How to Set Parent and Child Pages in WordPress

Parent and child pages are an effective way to organize the content on your WordPress website and can bring numerous SEO advantages if used appropriately. Unfortunately, displaying child pages of a parent page requires additional steps such as plugins or custom code coding solutions.

When creating a page, the Page Attributes section allows you to choose its parent and have its slug automatically included in its URL – something especially useful for websites with large numbers of pages or long hierarchies.

For example, if you offer multiple services, creating a parent page called ‘Services” with child pages for each service could help visitors quickly and efficiently locate what they are searching for while improving the user experience.

But if your website contains more than several parent pages, navigation and SEO may become challenging for visitors. A sitemap may be beneficial in simplifying things for them while improving SEO rankings as well.

Frequently Asked Questions

In WordPress, can a page have more than one Parent Page?

A page in WordPress cannot have more than one Parent Page. A child page can only have one parent because the hierarchical structure is meant to be a one-to-many relationship, but a parent page can have many children.

How does the URL structure change as a result of the Parent Page?

The URL structure in WordPress is unaffected by the Parent Page. The page hierarchy and permalink settings are typically what determine the URL structure. Although the parent page itself does not change the URL structure, child pages will have URLs that reflect their hierarchical relationship with the parent page.

In WordPress, can I modify the Parent Page of a page?

In WordPress, you can alter the Parent Page of a page. Edit the page you wish to change, then in the page editor’s “Page Attributes” box, select a new Parent Page from the “Parent” dropdown menu.