Getting started with Blogs in Website Builder

A blog can be an excellent asset for any website. It helps improve SEO, establishes authority, and keeps your audience interested. Whether you run a business or freelance, blogging can help attract visitors, build trust, and generate leads.

With the Website Builder Blog tool, you can easily create and manage blog posts on your site. Add a blog page, write your posts, and publish them on your live site. This guide will walk you through creating your blog and writing a post.

Note: The Blogs feature is included in the Website Builder add-on plans Premium and Business + E-commerce, and the dedicated Website Builder hosting plans Business, Pro and E-commerce. You can read more about what's included in the different Website Builder plans in our guide: Which features are included in each Website Builder plan?

• Step 1 - Find the Blog tool in the Website Builder editor
• Step 2 - Choose how you want to create your first post(s)
• Step 3 - Set up your blog
• Step 4 - Find the blog dashboard
• Step 5 - Overview of the blog dashboard
• Step 6 - Start writing a new blog post
• Step 7 - Add meta details to your blog post
• Step 8 - Publish your blog page and blog post(s)

Step 1 - Find the Blog tool in the Website Builder editor

1. Go to your Website Builder editor and find Blog on the left-side menu.
2. Click Get started.

Step 2 - Choose how you want to create your first post(s)

1. Select how you want to start writing your blog posts. Let our tool create AI-generated posts for you with text and images, or create everything yourself from scratch. If you choose the AI option, you can edit the posts before you publish them.
2. Click Continue when you've selected your preferred option.

Step 3 - Set up your blog

This step will vary a bit depending on which option you chose in the previous step. If you want to write everything yourself, you will only be asked to select a layout before you can complete the setup. If you chose the option to have your first posts AI-generated, you will also need to do the following:

1. Fill out the form with the details of your blog. This information will be used to generate your first blog posts. Only the website category is mandatory, but your posts will be more precise the more information you provide.
2. Tick the box below the field to indicate that you agree to the terms, conditions and privacy policy of OpenAI.
3. Click Continue.
4. Select your blog layout. You can present your posts as a list or in a card view, where they appear as small boxes next to each other.
5. Click Complete setup.

Step 4 - Find the blog dashboard

Your blog will now be created and added as a separate page to your website. By default, it will be named Blog, but you can change this later if you want to.

Now that your blog has been created, the next step is understanding how to manage your blog posts in the blog dashboard. 

Click Manage blog on the component to open the blog dashboard.

Step 5 - Overview of the blog dashboard

Your blog dashboard will now open in a new window. The dashboard is divided into three sections, each of which you can access via the left-side menu.

Posts

This section is where all your blog posts are listed. If you click on an existing post, it'll open in the blog post editor. On the overview page, you can also:

• Filter your posts based on status (published or drafts).
• Filter your posts according to categories.
• Sort your posts to show the newest or oldest first.

Categories

This section lists all the categories you've created and assigned your posts to. Sorting your posts into categories makes it easier for visitors to find their desired content. 

To add a new category, click the blue Add category button at the top-right corner, fill in a title and description, and click Save.

If you want to delete a category, click the bin icon to the right of the category in the overview.

Settings

In this section, you can adjust settings. You can select your blog language and choose whether you want to display the publish date on your posts.

Step 6 - Start writing a new blog post

Now that you know your way around the blog dashboard, you can start writing a blog post.

1. Click the blue Create post button in the top-right corner.
2. You'll now see the blog post editor. Enter a title for your post to continue.
3. Write the main text body for your post. While you write, you can change style and formatting or insert media using the options in the panel at the top of the text window. From left to right, you have the following settings:

• Heading/paragraph: You can select if your text should be part of a paragraph or a heading.
• Font size: Change the size of your text.
• B/I/U: Use these options to make some of your text bold, italicised or underlined.
• Text colour: Change the colour of your text. You can choose from a selection of recent colours or a colour spectrum.
• Link icon: Insert a link into your text. When you enter a link, you can choose whether it should open in a new or the same window.
• Image icon: Allows you to insert an image from your webspace. Once inserted, you can edit the scaling and SEO settings for the image. You can also decide what will happen when the visitor clicks the image, for example, if the image should open a link or show a larger version of the image.
• Video icon: Insert a YouTube video into your blog post.
• Alignment: Move your text right, left, centre or justify it.
• Bullet or numbered list: These two icons let you create bullet points or numbered lists in your post.
• 'Clear formatting' icon: Remove any customised formatting from your text and revert to the default style from your global settings.
• Undo/redo buttons: Erase a recent edit or reinsert deleted changes with a click.

Remember to save your blog post while drafting it by clicking the Save button in the upper-right corner.

Step 7 - Add meta details to your blog post

After writing your post, fill in the meta details to control how it appears on your website, social media, and search results. You can publish your post without these details, but adding them will boost your online visibility and help attract your target audience.

Go through the five dropdown menus on the right side of the editor and fill in the needed details:

Post settings

Click the calendar icon and select the publishing date that should appear on your blog post.

Category

Assign one or more categories (up to 10) to your post. This will allow visitors to filter your blog posts based on category and help them find their desired content. If you want to assign a whole new category, enter a name for it in the field below the box and click Add.

Snippet

The snippet is the bit of your blog post that appears to visitors on your website. Choose an image and write a small summary of the post to pique the interest of potential readers.

SEO

Toggle the button and add SEO details (title, meta description and URL slug) if you want your post to appear in search engine results. You can see how and where each mentioned element will appear in search results in the preview at the top of the section.

Social share

Similar to the SEO settings, add an image, a title, and a description to make up a presentation of your blog post when it is shared on social media. 

Once you've added your details, click Save at the top of the window to save the settings for the post.

Step 8 - Publish your blog page and blog post(s)

1. Click Publish on your blog post to show it on your website.
2. Return to the Website Builder editor and publish your website to make the blog page visible. You only have to do this when creating and adding the whole blog to your site. When you create your next post, you only have to click Publish in the blog post editor to make it visible on your website blog.
3. That's it! You have now added a blog to your Website Builder site.

Tip: If you want to unpublish a post or delete it entirely, you can always do this by clicking the three-dot icon next to the post in the blog dashboard overview or the blog post editor.

Related articles:

• Which features are included in each Website Builder plan?
• What is SEO?