Understanding WordPress Archive Templates

An archive template lists all posts matching specific criteria in chronological order from newest (at top) to oldest (at bottom).

When you publish a new blog post, it is displayed at the top of your main blog page, pushing your older posts down the page. As more posts are published, old posts keep moving down the page until they no longer appear on the main blog page.

These older posts are still available if you click through pages of older posts, or if you click on an archive page link. For example, all posts in Category A are also available in the Category A archive.

In your WordPress site, you’ll have a few different types of archive pages available, including:

Category Archives:

When a visitor clicks one of the category links on your site, they will be taken to an archive page listing all of the posts in that specific category.

If enabled, a content area can be added to the top of each category archive page. This content area is perfect for an introduction to the category and a description of the type of blog posts and content visitors will find in this archive.

Tag Archives:

When a visitor clicks one of the tag links on your site, they will be taken to an archive page listing all of the posts tagged with the same tag.

If enabled, a content area can be added to the top of each category archive page. This content area is perfect for an introduction to the category and a description of the type of blog posts and content visitors will find in this archive.

Author Archives:

If author archives are enabled, when a visitor clicks the author’s name, they will be taken to an archive page listing all of that author’s posts.

For example when reading blog posts on this site, you can click on the author name — Jennifer Bourn or Brian Bourn — links just below the headline to go to our individual author archives.

Author archives are typically only used on multi-author blogs.

Based on your settings, the author bio box, special intro content, or both can be displayed at the very top of the page above the list of posts. On the Today’s Innovative Woman website, we also created custom sidebars for each author, so their author archive and posts use a custom sidebar promoting more of they content.

Custom Post Type Archives

Depending on your site needs, you may also leverage custom post types in your WordPress theme, and if so, each custom post type will also have an archive page template.

For example:

• A large company may use a custom post type to create the individual “bio pages” for their team members. In this case, the main “team” page on the website would in actuality be the custom post archive page, pulling in the featured image and some other data.
• A custom post type may be used to help a user easily add testimonials to their site, in this case, the main testimonials page would be the custom post type archive page.

Making The Most of Your Archives

Each WordPress Archive — date, category, tag, author, etc. — lists all of the posts associated with the Archive. However, if you click over to an Archive page, sometimes it can be a little confusing because it looks just like the blog!

Here are a few tips for leveraging WordPress site archives:

• Add a custom headline for the Archive page. So a blog category called “Client Attraction” may have a headline like, “Articles and Resources on Client Attraction For Entrepreneurs” (See how I also got a few keyword descriptors in there too?!
• Add an archive description or archive introduction. After the Archive page headline, add some new, fresh, keyword-rich content to introduce visitors to the page and tell them what types of articles, posts, and topics they will find in the archive.
• Consider adding images to your Archive page introduction content. Your Archive introduction doesn’t have to be only text. It can contain images and video too!
• Work with a professional designer or developer to design your Archive intro content so it stands out and looks different than the rest of the posts. The last thing you want if for the Archive introduction to blend in and look like all the rest of the blog posts listed.

What About You?

Do you use Archive pages on your website? Have you created a custom Archive page? Or have you never really thought about using Archive pages before? Do you have questions about Archive pages?

We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!