We frequently get asked to incorporate a blog into new websites. This is a highly technical, labor-intensive process.
Just kidding.
That’s what we’d say if we were the Wizard of Oz and were more concerned with looking smart than being helpful. In truth, we are both smart and helpful! A blog as it turns out are a default function of a WordPress website – it’s baked in. The most used website platform in the world. There’s not much involved aside from setting up some parameters.
In this post we’ll explain the concept of having a blog inside of WordPress so a) you understand it and know you shouldn’t be charged for it and b) so you can start experimenting with them yourself.
The primary blog page (the index) gets defined on the Settings > Reading page in the backend of WordPress. You make a page, skip putting content in the Editor, and then define it as the “Posts” page in the settings. Your individual blog posts (Posts > Add New) are then listed here in chronological order on this page. Your theme could also have some other method of inserting the index into a page, you’d have to read the theme documentation to be sure but this is the most common method for setting up the blog page. That’s it, that’s a blog.
The URL structure (the text in the address bar) of the posts is setup on the Settings > Permalinks page. The naming structure can be setup as an appendage to the domain name so a separate domain or website is not required. Therefore, if your website is wizardofoz.com and your blog post is “The Scarecrow Did It” then the URL for your blog post would be wizardofoz.com/the-scarecrow-did-it. You could set up the structure to include the date, or category, but Google, in terms of optimization prefers this setup, so it’s best to stick with it.
Easy, right?
Now the content, the marketing, the styling, oh my! … but we’ll save those for future posts.
At IT Arsenal we can also do all this for you. We’re here to help and answer any questions you have, it’s seriously what we do all day, and love it!
Feel free to send us a question on our Q&A page -> https://itarsenal.com/contact/question-answer-support/
Happy blogging!
