ISSUE: Categorized blog posts will not load after clicking on a page in a menu

In WordPress,  a "Page" is not the same as a "Category." 

We find it's common for new WordPress users to refer to the word "Page" when they actually mean a "category" or "archive." If you want to add a link to a menu that will return all posts from a particular vertical—say, fashion, or beauty— you must create categories and add those to your menu. 

Adding a page will simply link to a static information page. As a live example, view this link to a category, and this link to a page. Note how one returns a feed of posts, and the second returns a static page with information less likely to change. 

Another clue is the URL structure. In WordPress, the word "category" is usually included in the URL, whereas pages typically won't include the word "page." Note the differences:

Check your own URL structures for clues about whether you have properly linked a category or page!



Categories are properly set up, but still not returning content

If you have followed the instructions above and properly added a category to a menu, but clicking on that link still returns no content, please troubleshoot the following:

  • Have you published posts within that category? If you are clicking on a category, but no posts in your archives were labeled with that category, no content would be returned.
  • Did you recently publish a post within that category, and also have a cache or performance plugin activated? It's possible cache is preventing you from seeing the latest version of your site. Be sure to refresh your browser cache, and purge any server cache if needed.