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All about Blogs

what is a blog?

Blogs are a great way to add a lot of content to your website in a structured and easy to navigate form. Search engines reward websites with well executed Blogs for these reasons.

A Blog in it's simplest form is just a group of posts or articles. Posts differ from Pages in that they have an inherit structure and functionality to them.

what are categories?

Posts are organized into Categories.

By default your website comes with at least one category called Uncategorized. Unless you choose another category before saving a new Post, it'll be placed into this default Category.

Categories are hierarchical, meaning you can have Parent and Child Categories. For example you could create a "News" Category and then create child Categories for Posts about specific topics such as "Politics" , "Entertainment" etc. This helps organize your Posts for your users and yourself. A Post can be placed in multiple Categories.

When a Post is placed in a Child Category it's also included in it's Parent Category when Posts from the Parent Category are viewed.

When a new Post is created the URL (website address) for the Post will use the default structure of www.mywebsiteaddress.com/category/your-post-title

what are tags?

Tags are another way to further group your Posts. You can add as many tags or no tags to each Post. Using the News example again, tags for Posts about Politics could be Tagged with names, places or major events such as “Election” etc. Generally speaking Tag names would not also be the same as a Category Name but instead a word more specific.

TIP: Use the Search Engine Optimization Tools so Google and the other search engines can even better understand (and rank highly) the content and topic of your post.

How to use the Search Engine Optimization tools

How do I add a Blog to my website?

If your website doesn’t already have a Blog section, you can add one yourself using the default functionality of your website. The easiest way for you to add a Blog section to your website is to follow the steps below:

  1. Create a New Category for your Blog Posts. If you want to make Parent and Child Categories you can do that at the same time but you’ll want one main category that all the Posts can be placed.
    1. From the Main Dashboard Menu, choose Posts > Categories
    2. On the left side of the screen Type the new Category Name.
    3. Optionally Type a Description that will show at the top of the Category “Page” in the front end of your website.
    4. Click Add New Category
  2. Create a New Post and save it to the Category that you created.

Now that you’ve created the start of your Blog, you need to give visitors to your website a way to access it. The easiest way to do that is to add a new link to your website’s main menu.

How to add a new link to your website’s main menu

Default Blog Functionality

Some of the built in functionality that relates to how your Blog is viewed is described below. If you want to extent the functionality of your Blog or website please contact us.

category page functionality

  • When a “Category Page” is viewed on the front end of your website, all the Posts in that Category will be shown.
  • The “Category Page” can include just the Post Titles, or the Post Titles and an excerpt or the Post Titles and the entire Post content.
  • Normally a Post Title can be clicked on to view the whole Post on it’s own “Page”

Single Post Page Functionality

  • When viewing a “Single Post Page”, navigation links are shown at the bottom of the Post to help users navigate your Posts.

Extend your Blog’s Functionality

These are examples of how your Blog can be enhanced for better engagement.

Adding a sidebar or an area at the top of your main Blog Page can create a space for this functionality.

Custom Navigation

If you have Multiple Categories, listing them in a specially styled way can allow users to easily navigate your Blog’s content.

Site Search

Including a Search Box on your website and especially in your Blog area will allow your visitors to search your website and Blog content.

Comments

Encourage a conversation and allow users to post their comments. You can also respond. Further enhancements to the Comments Section are unlimited. Please contact us for some suggestions based on your individual goals.

Social Media Sharing

Your Blog content can be easily shared to Social Media Networks. Have you content automatically Posted to Social Media. Share a Photo with your website link to Social Media

Related Posts
Display links to other related Posts on your website. This is great for keeping users on your website.

Author Biographies

If you have a multi-author Blog, tell viewers more about the Author.

Signup Form

Allow users to signup to receive email notifications when you Publish new Posts on your Blog.

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