WordPress Post Status: Beyond Published And Draft

WordPress posts have several statuses beyond "Published" and "Draft." Each status has specific behavior; misunderstanding them produces content visibility issues.

The full status list and what each means is worth knowing for sites that operate beyond casual blogging.

Publish

The standard visible status. The post appears on the site and in feeds.

Future

Scheduled for publication at a future date. WordPress will change the status to Publish automatically when the date arrives.

The status depends on WP-Cron running. If WP-Cron has issues, scheduled posts may not publish on time.

Draft

Work in progress. Not visible to the public; visible to logged-in users with appropriate permissions.

Pending

Submitted for review. Used when contributors submit posts that editors need to approve before publishing.

Private

Visible only to users with appropriate capabilities (typically administrators and editors). Useful for content that needs to exist but not be public.

Trash

Deleted but recoverable. Trashed posts can be restored or permanently deleted.

Auto-draft

WordPress's automatic draft for new posts. Created when a user clicks "Add New" but before any content is saved. Auto-drafts are typically deleted automatically after a few days.

Inherit

For revisions and attachments. The status is inherited from the parent post.

The visibility implications

Published posts appear in: feeds, archives, sitemap, search results.

Private posts appear only to authenticated users with sufficient capability.

Future posts appear nowhere until publication.

Draft and pending posts appear only in admin and post editor for users with access.

The custom statuses

Plugins like PublishPress can add custom statuses: "In review," "Designed," "Approved," etc. The custom statuses support editorial workflow without becoming "Published."

Custom statuses are useful for teams with multi-stage editorial processes.

The honest framing

Most WordPress users only encounter Publish and Draft. The other statuses become relevant for specific situations: scheduled publishing, multi-author workflows, private content, recovery from deletion.

Knowing the full status list helps when content seems missing or has unexpected visibility. The diagnosis often involves checking what status a specific post has.