Rosemary’s notes for writing WORDPRESS blog posts/blog pages
Keywords – before you start :
Always think of keywords that will be used in your post that others might look for in a search on google etc. USE these keywords as much as possible in heading, text and in keywords and description at the bottom of the post, in permalink and in Tags and Categories.
What is the heart of what you are trying to communicate
- Heading: should contain keywords and be able to stand on its own as a description of the content. eg instead of New Workshop Planned title it New Permaculture Workshop Date Set
- First Paragraph: should contain keywords and stand on its own as a summary of content. Insert a MORE tag after the first paragraph – editing text it is the 12 box in top row.
- TAGS: tags are like keywords – attach a few tags to a post – choose from popular tags or add a few of your own. They form another way to navigate around your website
- Permalink – once you put a title on your post or page the words of that title becomes the permalink eg New Permaculture Workshop date set becomes new-permaculture-workshop-date-set If you write a long title, you have a long permalink and it is clumsy. Edit the permalink to make it short and sweet and keyword rich eg 2012-permaculture-workshop
- Keywords/Description: PLEASE fill these out at the bottom of the edit/new post page. Remember keyword rich a short description – one sentence summary with lots of key words, then keyword phrases separated by a comma.
Don’t forget the Featured Image – VERY IMPORTANT!!!
Scroll down the right hand side of the edit page to find it. This should be the main reference image for the page, and it is best if is a horizontal rather than vertical one – they usually display better as a thumbnail. When a summary of this post is shown, on the site, or in social media, or on mailchimp it is this picture that displays.
Hints on Layout and Editing
- Editing tools: forgotten what the little symbols at the top of a post mean – hover your pointer over them and they will tell you what they are for, as well as a short cut keyboard link.
- Writing: You can write the copy somewhere else and copy it to the blog post, or copy someone else’s writing, BUT If copying content from somewhere else – ALWAYS use the text paste (preferable) or windows paste option (this one keeps the formatting). WHY – otherwise a lot of extraneous code gets copied over.
- use the ” quote option in the editing tools to make a paragraph stand out
- Use Good Clear Headings, bullet points, bold and Italics where appropriate to make it easier to scan the information.
- Use photos and images to break up the text – hints on loading images here
- Web Links: always link to other sites you refer to. Select the Text/photo you want to online casino link from – the name of the product or more info or image then select the link tool and type the link address in, remember to include the http://
- Email links: use the link maker, but instead of http:// put mailto: followed by the email address
Categories:
This is VERY important for navigation around your website and for displaying some posts on the home page.
- Choose the category/s that your post fits into.
- make a new category if necessary
- remember you can have sub categories under a parent category
- You don”t want so many categories that there is only one post in each!
Preview the page
Save the draft and Click on preview in order to see what the page looks like before publishing it
I always do this. Check the following things and edit where necessary
- Does it look good?
- are the images in the best place
- is it easy to read and scan
- does in need more breaks, headings, emphasis
- Date of publication – by default it is the date you publish it, but you can change the date so it is published on some other date.
does it appear on the home page (if applicable)
What is a Sticky Post
Do you want to make sure a post stays at the top of the latest posts, even when it is not the latest post – eg something that you want to be a headline for a month or two or three – a major event etc. Make it sticky
- In the top right hand corner near publication Click on Visibility: Public
- click on Sticky post
Publish the Post/Page
Once published, check that the post displays on the home page, and all is OK
