3 Easy Ways for Beginners to Reorder Posts in WordPress

If you’re using WordPress to manage your website, you may have noticed that blog posts are automatically displayed in reverse chronological order. This works well for most blogs, but not every site benefits from showing the newest content first. Sometimes, you might want to highlight your most valuable articles, promote older evergreen content, or organize a series of posts in a specific order. In those cases, you’ll need to take control over how your posts are displayed.

Fortunately, you don’t need to be a developer to change the order of posts in WordPress. Whether you want to move just one article to the top or reorganize your entire archive, WordPress offers simple tools and plugins that let even beginners customize content layout with ease. In this guide, we’ll walk through three easy methods to reorder posts: changing publish dates, using a plugin, and setting posts as “sticky.”

How WordPress Sorts Posts by Default—and Its Limitations

Out of the box, WordPress displays blog posts with the newest ones first. This means that as you publish new content, older articles get pushed down the list. While this default behavior makes sense for news sites or time-sensitive content, it isn’t always ideal for blogs that rely on evergreen content, curated reading paths, or featured articles.

For instance, let’s say you’ve written a comprehensive tutorial a year ago that still brings in significant traffic. If it’s buried beneath dozens of newer but less relevant posts, new visitors may never find it. This default structure also complicates efforts to display related articles in sequence, such as parts of a series. And while you can sort by title or date in the WordPress dashboard for your own management purposes, these changes don’t impact what users see on the front end of your site.

Additionally, many WordPress themes and sidebar widgets (like “Recent Posts”) mirror this default reverse chronological order. This can limit your ability to highlight older content or arrange posts by topic or relevance. The lack of built-in flexibility means that site owners often need to find alternative ways to manage post order more strategically.

Option 1: Change the Publish Date of Your Posts

The easiest way to reorder blog posts is by adjusting their publish dates. Because WordPress arranges posts based on the date they were published, changing the date can instantly move an article up or down in the list. For example, if you want an older post to appear at the top of your blog page, you can simply update its publish date to today.

This method doesn’t require any plugins or special settings. You can access this option directly in the WordPress dashboard. Either use the “Quick Edit” feature from the post list to change the date or open the post in the block editor and modify the publish date under the “Post” settings panel. Once saved, the post will automatically appear higher in the list based on its new date.

While this method is straightforward, it’s not always the best solution. Changing the date can confuse readers who may assume the article is brand new. This can be problematic if the content is time-sensitive or has references to specific dates or events. Additionally, modifying dates can interfere with SEO strategies that rely on original publish times, particularly for news outlets or blogs that report on current events. It’s also worth considering the impact on RSS feeds and subscribers, who may receive duplicate notifications when older posts are republished.

Option 2: Use a Plugin Like Post Types Order

For more control without changing post metadata, a popular solution is using a plugin such as Post Types Order. This free plugin adds drag-and-drop functionality to your WordPress dashboard, allowing you to manually rearrange posts in any order without affecting their original publish dates or times. It’s an ideal tool for site owners who want flexibility without sacrificing accuracy or transparency.

Once the plugin is installed and activated, you can access its settings under the “Settings” tab and configure which post types and user roles have permission to reorder content. You can then go to the “Posts” section and simply drag posts into your preferred sequence. The changes take effect immediately, making this one of the fastest and most intuitive ways to reorder content.

Another advantage is that the plugin integrates smoothly with most themes and doesn’t require any coding. Whether you want to reorder blog posts, portfolio items, or custom post types, Post Types Order provides a clean interface for doing so. For users managing larger sites with dozens or hundreds of posts, this plugin can save time while offering precise control over content flow.

If you want the reordering interface to appear directly within the default WordPress post list screen, you can enable that as well in the plugin’s settings. You also have the option to activate sorting for additional content types like pages, media, or even navigation menus. This makes the plugin highly adaptable for various types of WordPress websites, from blogs and corporate sites to ecommerce platforms.

Option 3: Feature Key Content Using Sticky Posts

Sometimes, you don’t need to reorder your entire blog. You just want to make sure a specific post stands out at the top of your homepage. This is where WordPress’s Sticky Post feature comes in. Sticky posts are essentially highlighted articles that stay at the top of your blog feed, regardless of their publication date. It’s similar to pinning a post on social media.

To use this feature, open the desired post in the block editor, navigate to the “Post” settings, and check the box labeled “Stick to the top of the blog.” You can also do this via the “Quick Edit” option in the post list. Once enabled, the sticky post will always appear first, unless your theme overrides this behavior.

Sticky posts are particularly useful for drawing attention to welcome messages, featured tutorials, announcements, or evergreen content. They allow you to promote high-value posts without affecting the structure or order of the rest of your content. However, if you use sticky posts excessively, they can crowd out newer content or confuse regular readers, so it’s best to use them sparingly and strategically.

Also, keep in mind that when multiple sticky posts are published, they will still appear in reverse chronological order among themselves. So while you can feature several articles, they will still follow the default time-based arrangement unless manually adjusted with other tools.

Conclusion

As your WordPress website grows, relying solely on reverse chronological order may no longer be sufficient. Whether you’re running a blog, online magazine, portfolio site, or corporate website, there are valid reasons to rearrange how posts are presented. Highlighting evergreen content, organizing series, or promoting top-performing articles can help improve navigation, user engagement, and overall site strategy.

The method you choose depends on your specific needs. If you only need to move one or two posts and aren’t concerned about dates, changing the publish date can be a quick fix. For more advanced control that preserves metadata, plugins like Post Types Order are powerful and easy to use. And if your goal is simply to spotlight one or two key articles, sticky posts offer a lightweight and effective solution.

Regardless of the approach you take, gaining control over post order can greatly enhance your content’s visibility and improve your readers’ experience. Best of all, none of these methods require coding knowledge—making them perfect options for WordPress beginners looking to take their site’s presentation to the next level.