Understanding Content Types
As websites grow, simply creating pages is often no longer enough. You may want to publish news articles, manage events, showcase team members, share publications or maintain a project portfolio. While these all contain content, they are not necessarily managed in the same way.
This is where content types come in.
What is a content type?
A content type defines how a particular kind of content is organised, edited and displayed on your website.
For example, a news article may have:
- A title
- A publication date
- An author
- A featured image
- A body of text
An event might require different information:
- A title
- A start date
- An end date
- A location
- Registration details
Although both are content, they serve different purposes and therefore require different fields and presentation.
Why use content types?
Content types help keep your website organised and consistent.
Without content types, every piece of content would need to be managed as a generic page. As your website grows, this quickly becomes difficult to maintain.
By defining content types, AXIO can:
- Present editors with the right fields
- Create consistent layouts
- Generate overview pages automatically
- Support filtering and searching
- Keep content organised as the website grows
Content types in AXIO
AXIO includes several content types out of the box.
The most commonly used are:
Pages
Pages form the structure of your website. Examples include your homepage, contact page and service pages.
Posts
Posts are used for content that belongs to a collection of similar items, such as news articles, blog posts, events or publications.
Team
The Team collection is designed specifically for people. Team members often require dedicated information such as profile photos, job titles and social media links, making them different from regular posts.
Creating your own content types
Every organisation is different. A research institute may want to manage publications, while a conference website may need speakers and sessions. A product website may require case studies and testimonials.
AXIO allows administrators to create their own post types that fit the needs of their website.
Examples include:
- News
- Events
- Publications
- Projects
- Case Studies
- Products
- Testimonials
- Research Outputs
Each post type can have its own structure, overview pages and presentation.
Content types and website structure
Choosing the right content types early on makes it easier to scale your website over time.
Instead of storing everything as pages, content can be grouped logically and displayed automatically in listings, archives and search results.
This not only makes life easier for editors, but also helps visitors find the information they need.
Beyond content types
Content types are only one part of AXIO’s content management system. AXIO also provides tools for organising and managing content, including categories, menus, media libraries, forms and redirects.
Together, these tools help organisations create professional websites that remain structured, manageable and easy to maintain as they grow.