WordPress index plugin: Create an index of your website content

Lots of website owners need index pages on their WordPress site, or a blog post index listing articles in alphabetical order. Surprisingly, there is no good WordPress index plugin available for listing your website content. Today, I'll show you how to use the Posts Table Pro WordPress table plugin to create index pages, posts, or even custom post types.

Using the Post Table Pro WordPress table plugin is a great solution if you're looking for a way to organize your WordPress site. It also makes it easier for visitors to find the content they need. With this plugin, you can create a searchable and sortable index that lists all your web pages or blog posts.

Your WordPress index plugin or WP index can be customized to display only page/post names or additional information by adding extra columns. Your finished WordPress index plugin pages will look something like this:

We'll take a closer look at how to use Posts Table Pro, and how you can customize it to fit your specific needs. We'll cover everything from creating a WordPress index and adding custom post types to configuring filters and making it searchable. If you're a blogger, freelancer, or business owner, read on to learn how to use Posts Table Pro to create a powerful and user-friendly index WordPress site.

See a WordPress site index in action on our demo page.

What makes a good WordPress index plugin?

First, let's look at what an index actually is. Then we can think about the best way to create a WordPress index.

The definition of index is:

1. "(in a nonfiction book, monograph, etc.) a more or less detailed alphabetical listing of names, places, and topics along with the numbers of the pages on which they are mentioned or discussed, usually included in or constituting the back matter.
2. a sequential arrangement of material, especially in alphabetical or numerical order."

A WordPress site index plugin should list content such as pages, posts, or other content types in an alphabetical listing. Moreover, the plugin should let you include other material from the site contents in the index, such as tags, categories, authors, or even custom fields and taxonomy terms.

A WordPress index plugin can list any content type alphabetically. If you store events or date-based articles in WordPress, the plugin can also list content by date.

You may also like: How to create an alphabetical index with a WordPress A-Z plugin.

Posts Table Pro - The perfect WordPress index plugin

When it comes to finding a WordPress index plugin, you may find that the options are limited. A quick Google search or any other search engine will reveal that there aren't many plugins available to choose from, which can be frustrating.

Even more frustrating is that many of the available options don't really provide the functionality you'd expect from an index plugin. Some of the plugins available focus more on displaying site contents in a grid layout with thumbnail images, rather than creating a list layout as you would expect from an index. Other plugins may be outdated, with no updates in years, which can be a major warning sign when it comes to compatibility with the latest WordPress versions.

Fortunately, with Posts Table Pro, you can create an index that lists your website pages or blog posts in a clear and organized way, with the added ability to include custom post types. It has all the features you'd expect from an index plugin:

• 

  Create an index of WordPress pages, blog posts, or any custom post type (e.g. e-commerce products, events, documents, portfolio case studies, testimonials, etc.).

• The index items are listed in a table layout with whichever columns of information you choose to include.
• There are multiple sorting options, including alphabetical or date-based sorting.
• You can either index all your WordPress site content, or just create an index for a specific post type, category, tag, or similar.
• Users can search, sort, and filter the index to find the content they're looking for.

Get Posts Table Pro

To better understand how the WordPress index plugin works, let's take a look at a real-life case study. Imagine you have a website with a large amount of content, including blog posts, products, and other custom post types. As your content library grows, it becomes increasingly difficult for your visitors to find what they're looking for.

In addition to creating an index of blog posts and pages, you can also use this plugin to list other custom post types on your website. For example, if you have a WooCommerce store, you can use Posts Table Pro to create a searchable index of your products.

Other potential use cases for a WordPress index plugin include creating an index of resources such as eBooks or whitepapers or creating a directory of staff or team members. Check out other use cases and case studies below. Once you've identified the use case that best fits your website, you can use Posts Table Pro to create a customizable index page with various display options. You can even add filters to the index, such as categories or tags.

Case study - Index of blog posts for Journey With Omraam

Journey with Omraam wanted to create a WordPress index plugin page listing all their site's blog posts. You can see this on their 'Search All Posts' page.

The blog posts are listed in a table layout with columns for the post title, content, post date, author, and categories. Users can quickly find a specific article by using the keyword search box or clicking on a category to filter the index for that category. They can then click on the title to read the full post.

Use case - WordPress site table of contents

Most WordPress table of contents plugins doesn't actually list all the pages from your website, which is what you'd expect. Instead, they create an internal table of contents to aid navigation within an individual post. They're a good way to break up long articles because they add jump links to the various sections of the post. However, they're not used for creating an index listing all your site's pages!

You can use Posts Table Pro to list all the pages on your WordPress site in an alphabetical table of contents or index. Choose your columns, add any extras such as a search box or dropdown filters, and it's an ideal way to help people navigate your website. It's far better than an HTML sitemap plugin because there are extra features such as search and filters, plus you can add extra data about each page instead of just the title.

Next, we'll get to the practical part of this beginners' tutorial. I'll show you exactly how to set up Posts Table Pro as the best WordPress index plugin.

How to create an index of WordPress posts, pages, or custom posts

1. First, get Posts Table Pro and install it on any WordPress website. (You'll find instructions for this in the confirmation email, including how to activate your license key.)
2. Second, create a new page where you want to use the WordPress index plugin. Call it "Website Index Page", "Index of Blog Posts" or whatever you like.
3. Add this shortcode to the page: [posts_table sort_by="title"]

If you want to create an index of normal WordPress blog posts, then this will list them in a tabular index in alphabetical order. Alternatively, if you're creating an index of WordPages or a custom post type, then you need to extend the shortcode to specify what type of content to index:

• Index of website pages - [posts_table post_type="page" sort_by="title"]
• Index of custom posts - [posts_table post_type="cptslug" sort_by="title"]. Replace cptslug, you need to add the slug for the custom post type that you want to create an index. For example, if your custom post type is called 'documents' then the slug will be something like 'document'. You can find the correct slug by going to the list of custom posts in the WordPress admin and looking at the URL. This is the URL for the downloads custom post type on the Barn2 Media website: https://barn2.com/wp-admin/edit.php?post_type=download. In this URL, you can see that the post type slug is 'download'.
• Index listing multiple post types - You can also create a WordPress index plugin listing multiple post types. This shortcode will list posts and pages: [posts_table post_type="post,page" sort_by="title"].

Publish and view your WordPress index page. You'll see your website's new content (whether posts, pages, or custom posts) listed in a table-based index. Right now, the table just lists the default columns and I'll tell you how to change these in a minute.

Configuring your WordPress site index

Ok, so far you've learned how to use a WordPress index plugin to create index listing pages, posts, or custom post types. Next, I'll talk you through some popular ways to configure your index. Just bear in mind that Posts Table Pro comes with over 45 options, so this is just a sample of what the index plugin can do.

Choose which columns to include in the index table

By default, the WordPress index plugin creates a table with columns for a featured image, title, summary, categories, post author, and publish date. You have full control over which columns to include. This affects what information is displayed on the website index page.

The available columns are post id, title, content, excerpt, image, date, author, categories, tags, status, or any custom field or taxonomy. There are full instructions for choosing your columns in the plugin knowledge base.

I'd say that every WordPress index is likely to include the title column. But perhaps this is the only column you need! It's fine to just include a post name column, and nothing else.

You can add columns with extra information such as date, content, and excerpt. You can also add tags, or perhaps any custom data you've created using custom fields and taxonomies.

How to sort your WordPress index in numerical order

Posts Table Pro doesn't have the option to index site content in a number order. However, you can do this by adding the numbers in a format that will also make sense in alphabetical order.

Let's assume that you want to create a numerical WordPress index content based on a column containing numbers 1, 2, 5, 10, 11, 22, and 29. Added in a single-digit format, the numbers will be listed wrongly as 1, 10, 11, 2, 22, 29, and 5. That's because they're in alphabetical order.

Instead, add them as 01, 02, 05, 10, 11, 22, and 29. They're still listed alphabetically, but the extra digit means that sorting in alphabetical and numerical order has the same result.

If you don't want your index to list the numbers in this format, then here are some alternative suggestions:

• Try adding sort_by="menu_order" to the Posts Table Pro shortcode. You can then manually set the order of the items in the index using the 'Order' field that comes with WordPress.
• Sort by date instead. I'll tell you how to do this next. Once you've enabled date sorting, you can hack the publish date of your WordPress dashboard posts/pages/custom posts to manually control the order of the index.

Sorting a WordPress index in date order

As well as sorting the index in alphabetical order, you can sort in date order.

To sort the index by date, add sort_by="date" to the Posts Table Pro shortcode. By default, the index will be listed with the most recent items first - or you can add sort_order="asc" to reverse this.

For example, the shortcode to create your WordPress posts index might look like this: [posts_table sort_by="date" sort_order="asc"]

Add filters to the index page

By default, the WordPress index plugin activates several ways to help users to find specific pages or posts more quickly. These are:

• A keyword search box appears above the index list.
• Users can click on any column header to sort the index by that column.
• If the index includes categories, tags, or custom taxonomy columns, users can click on any item in these columns to refine the list.

That's pretty good, but there's a further option that you can add if you like. Posts Table Pro also comes with dropdown list filters which you can add above the index table. You can add filters for your post categories, tags, author, and any custom taxonomy. Each filter appears as a separate dropdown above the list.

For example, this shortcode will create a WordPress index listing posts with a name column only, plus filters for categories and tags:

[posts_table columns="title" sort_by="title" filters="categories,tags"]

Exclude specific pages or posts from the index

Whenever I create an index page for a WordPress site, I'm always surprised at how many pages or new posts I don't actually want to include! Most websites end up with quite a bit of 'hidden' new content that you don't need in the index. For example, on our own website, we have extra landing pages which sit outside of the overall navigation structure.

Fortunately, it's easy to exclude specific pages, posts, or custom posts from your WordPress index page. Simply use the 'exclude' option to list the ID of the content that you don't need in the index. For example, this shortcode will exclude posts with the IDs 123 and 987:

[posts_table columns="title" sort_by="title" exclude="123,987"]

For extra convenience, you can also exclude entire categories. E.g.:

[posts_table columns="title" sort_by="title" exclude_category="123,987"]

To find the post or category ID, just go to its 'Edit' screen (e.g. the Edit Post page). Then look for a long number in the URL. For example, the URL of the post I'm currently writing is https://barn2.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=40068&action=edit which tells me that its ID is 40068.

The WordPress index page plugin also has several options to include specific posts, so check out the knowledge base for full details of what's possible.

Create a WooCommerce index listing E-commerce products

Posts Table Pro works and lets you create a product WordPress index page for practically all WordPress e-commerce plugins. This includes Easy Digital Downloads, WP eCommerce, and others. That's because all these e-commerce plugins store their products as a custom new post type.

Follow the above step-by-step tutorial to create an index of products for any WordPress E-commerce plugin.

You may also like: Learn how to use Posts Table Pro to list Easy Digital Downloads products.

It also works for WooCommerce. However, if you need an index WordPress of WooCommerce products then you're better off with our other WordPress index page plugin, WooCommerce Product Table.

The instructions for creating an index WordPress with WooCommerce Product Table are very similar to Posts Table Pro. The difference is that it has extra support for WooCommerce, such as add-to-cart buttons and reviews. So I'd recommend that for a WooCommerce index plugin instead.

WOOCOMMERCE PRODUCT TABLE

Next steps

Posts Table Pro can help you create index pages for your website content easily. Unlike other dedicated index plugins, it offers greater flexibility, customization, and sophistication. This plugin lists custom post types, allowing you to create a tailored content index for your site.

If you're looking to improve your user experience and speed up your content indexing process. It also offers your visitors a more organized and structured way to navigate through your site, Posts Table Pro is the ideal solution for you. So why wait? Get it today and start creating index pages of your own website content.