homestead_faq's profileBrand User

677 Messages

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44.6K Points

Wednesday, October 17th, 2012 2:13 PM

Sitebuilder Plus: Add A Blog

Sitebuilder Plus: Add A Blog
Adding a blog to your business's website is a great way to encourage customer loyalty and supplement your visibility to search engines.

You can configure your blog to appear the way you want it to. For example, you can decide how many posts show up on your blog or how big the font size on your blog is.

To add a blog to your site:
  1. Click Websites Manager in the left navigation menu. Then, click Edit Site.
  2.  


  3. Click Insert in the top toolbar and mouse over the text element. Select blog from the secondary drop-down list.



  4. This will open up a small window asking you to setup a name and description for your blog.


  5. The last step will be to use the Blog Settings editor on the right side of the screen to customize your blog. You can also click on "New" to start your first post.

Tips for creating a successful blog
  • Post often. The more you post the more "fresh" your website will be, and search engines may rank your site higher because of it.


  • Keep posts short. Shorter posts are more likely to be read all the way through by your readers.


  • Promote it. Tell your friends about your blog. Share links to your blog articles in your social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn.


  • Encourage subscriptions. Your blog has an RSS feed that viewers can subscribe to so they can be alerted when you post a new topic.
Brand User

677 Messages

 • 

44.6K Points

12 years ago

Hi,

Adding a blog to your business's website is a great way to encourage customer loyalty and supplement your visibility to search engines.

You can configure your blog to appear the way you want it to. For example, you can decide how many posts show up on your blog or how big the font size on your blog is.

To add a blog to your site:
  1. Click Websites Manager in the left navigation menu. Then, click Edit Site.
  2.  


  3. Click Insert in the top toolbar and mouse over the text element. Select blog from the secondary drop-down list.



  4. This will open up a small window asking you to setup a name and description for your blog.


  5. The last step will be to use the Blog Settings editor on the right side of the screen to customize your blog. You can also click on "New" to start your first post.

Tips for creating a successful blog
  • Post often. The more you post the more "fresh" your website will be, and search engines may rank your site higher because of it.


  • Keep posts short. Shorter posts are more likely to be read all the way through by your readers.


  • Promote it. Tell your friends about your blog. Share links to your blog articles in your social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn.


  • Encourage subscriptions. Your blog has an RSS feed that viewers can subscribe to so they can be alerted when you post a new topic.

2 Messages

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310 Points

12 years ago

Where do we find how to subscribe to the RSS feed?

12 Messages

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534 Points

12 years ago

How do you add a blog to storefront? and why does the one above look so simply and with storefront is so complicated.

12 Messages

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534 Points

12 years ago

Does anyone know the answer to this??????

2 Messages

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212 Points

12 years ago

This does not help at all

2 Messages

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170 Points

12 years ago

I can't get my blog to load on my page

8 Messages

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384 Points

I can't get the text to show up.  It puts the template up and when I publish the text does not update

Any help?

1.4K Messages

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262.9K Points

Which site and page are you placing the blog on? What post is not showing up for you?

8 Messages

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384 Points

Hi, I'm trying to put it on the www.brierpatchkids.com under the page titled - The Brier Patch Blog.  I didn't know that it was supposed to have a feedback spot.  I can see that the template has this all already fix into the blog.  So, I deleted my text and inserted the blog posting.  The template loaded.  Then I went to make a "new" post and then I published it but the text never moved in to the blog. When I preview the page it just shows the template.  I'm afraid officially publish the page to the site since that will kill the good looking page. 

1.4K Messages

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262.9K Points

Unfortunately, the blog doesn't preview. You can only publish it to get a look, but I see 3 posts on your blog, 2 published, and 1 a draft.

8 Messages

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384 Points

Yep, when I couldn't see it. I did it again.
How do I delete the wrong ones?

10 Messages

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936 Points

12 years ago

I agree completely with the above comment. I have been trying for hours to insert the blog that I created in my website account to actually appear on a page in my website, or to create a link to it even, for that matter. Please advise!!!!

2 Messages

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200 Points

12 years ago

Tedia 3946... The blog is simple to set up. On the page you want to place your blog, just go up to INSERT and right beneath the TEXT BOX CHOICE, you will see BLOG. Click on that and it will insert a blog window onto your page. You can expand it or make it whatever size you want. You'll see blog settings over on the right, and you can set your preferences there.

You may be confused because in this mode, you cannot see what you posted on your blog. You HAVE TO PUBLISH it and look at it that way. However, the posts are easy to edit if you're unhappy with what you said. You just go back into your site-building mode and go into Blog Posts and edit. It's easy once you figure out you cannot see the posts in SiteBuilder mode.

2 Messages

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210 Points

12 years ago

do we paste the blog text on the page or do we enter it into the New blog section??

10 Messages

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936 Points

12 years ago

Is it possible to categorize and save old blog posts in some kind of library, or do they all just stay in a sequential order that would have to be scanned through to find old posts?

23 Messages

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1.4K Points

What I do with a number of things including web-pages is to number them (start at 00001 or 99999) after you URL example www.myblog.com/html.

23 Messages

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1.4K Points

I should have added that if you want to start with 1 and go forward you have to enter Zero'.s in front or by the time you get to 10 it will fall in beside the 1 and when you start at 99999 the next would be 99998 this way you last post is always on top and you don't have to scroll through a lot files in the years to come.

5 Messages

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350 Points

12 years ago

I've followed the instructions correctly ... but, my page is blank unless in sitebuilder mode ... and my post isn't showing there either ... even after publishing the page and posting to facebook ......... what's up?

2 Messages

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190 Points

12 years ago

I have a question similar to Tedia3946 - I'd like my Blog to look more "professional" and be easier to navigate - ie, organize posts into blog categories

Or at the very least a list off to the side that shows topics of older posts,
Plus a way to search through blog posts.

Any ideas/advice??? (do support people ever check these comments???)

5 Messages

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350 Points

12 years ago

NO! I DON'T BELIEVE THE TECNICIANS DO CHECK THESE COMMENTS ... ALL I SEE IS CONTINUATIONS OF MORE OF OUR COMMENTS REGARDING THE PROBLEMS! ... SO WHERE DOES THE HELP BEGIN?

2 Messages

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190 Points

12 years ago

I was just on live chat with a fellow from Homestead Support. Here's the conversation (hope this helps some of you):

[Cora] I'm somewhat disappointed in the blog. Is there: a) a way to organize posts into categories, b) a way to list titles of either most recent or most popular blogs, c) a way to search blogs entries for a certain topic.

[Support] unfortuantely our blog is pretty basic and none of those are possible

[Cora] Ok. any plans for upgrading in the future, or do you think probably not??

[Support] I have not seen anything, but sometimes we learn about new things same time as you. Definitely go to community.homestead.com and post the request. The engineers and marketing staff do look there and read all posts and suggestions.

[Cora] Ok thanks. I appreciate your candidness. In the meantime, would you have any suggestions.... here's my dilemma: in the past I've had a separate blog through blogger but from what I understand, having the blog an integral part of the site is better for google rankings b/c that's where the new content is being added, etc. Is there any way to somehow incorporate an "outside" blog into my site without just having a link to it???

[Support] I would approach the blog provider and ask if they have a way for you to embed the blog into your site. If wo, it will be better for SEO than just a link to the blog.

2 Messages

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144 Points

12 years ago

my buttons are showing at top of my page---I will like to move my buttons to the left of page....this will allow me more flexibility when adding new buttons

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled
how do i switch my buttons identifying pages from one location of page to another?.

782 Messages

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184.8K Points

This is a great conversation that's separate from the main topic, so I created a new topic to continue the discussion. Please reference the new topic here: Edit layout of navigation menu