Does Your Blog Has An Archive Page : Essential Blog Element Series Part 2

An archive page is very important blog element and you should not neglect it, after the About Me page I give preference to archive page, so in my today’s article I’ll tell you what is an archive page and how to create an archive page for your site. Lets start:

What is an archive page

A single page that contains the record of all your posts arranged in the form of categories and date is called an archive page.

Importance of an Archive page

• As an archive page consists record of all your previous posts, so it becomes easier for your readers to explore all your articles in a single page.
• If you’ve a number of articles then you can keep your visitors on your blog for hours, just with the help of a single Archive page.
• I’ve seen many bloggers who does not pay any attention to archive page, but I recommend you to must have an archive page so as to decrease the bounce rate.

How to create an archive page

Creating an archive page in WordPress is very easy, and there are 2 ways to do that (i) Automatically, using a plugin (ii) Manually inserting the code

If you are non Thesis theme user

• One of my favorite plugin to create an archive page for a WordPress blog is Clean Archives, just install this plugin and your archive page is competed in no time. Click here to download Clean Archives WordPress plugin.
• If you want to see the working demo, click here.

If you’re a Thesis Theme user

Step 1. In the WordPress dashboard, in the sidebar under Pages click on Add New. Title this page as Archives and in the right hand side, select Archives from the template drop down menu and click on Publish. Have a look:

Step 2. Now copy the code below and paste it in custom_functions.php file

function my_archive() {
?>
<div>
<div>
 <h3>By Category:</h3>
 <ul>
 <?php wp_list_categories('sort_column=name&title_li='); ?>
 </ul>

 <h3>By Month:</h3>
 <ul>
 <?php wp_get_archives('type=monthly'); ?>
 </ul>
 <h3>By Tag:</h3>
 <ul>
 <?php wp_tag_cloud('number=0')?>
 </ul>

</div>

<div>

 <h3>By Post: (Last 100 articles)</h3>
 <ul>
 <?php wp_get_archives('type=postbypost&limit=100'); ?>
 </ul>
</div>
</div>
<?php
}
remove_action('thesis_hook_archives_template', 'thesis_archives_template');
add_action('thesis_hook_archives_template', 'my_archive');

Step 3. Copy the CSS coded from below and paste it in custom.css file

/*-----archives-----*/
.custom .archive h3 {margin-top: 0;}
.custom .archive ul {font-size: .85em; }
.custom .archivel { float: left; width: 40%;}
.custom .archiver { float: right; width: 60%;}

And you’re done, you’ve successfully created an archive page. Now view your archive page and it will look something like mine, click here to see my archive page demo.

Code Credits : Thanks to Somone Bull for the beautiful archive code. Someone blogs at ThesisThemeHQ.

In this way you can create an archive page for your blog and can show all your articles at one place and make your readers happy. Does your blog has an archive page ?

Related posts:

1. Articles Page : Essential Blog Element Series Part 3
2. Definition Page : Essential Blog Element Series Part 5
3. How To Create A Perfect About Me Page : Essential Blog Element Series Part 1
4. Essential Blog Element Series : Happy Ending :)
5. 3 Important Pages To Increase RSS Subscribers : Essential Blog Element Series Part 4

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