Creating a Blog Post

Blog posts are created from Add New in the Site Edit toolbar. This article shows you how to add a new post, confirm it opened in the preview, write the article content, finish categories and SEO in This Blog Post, and publish the post to your live site.

Before you begin: Create posts from Add New → Blog post. You can edit the post's main content directly on the page — hover the content in the preview to edit it by hand or with AI. Use This Blog Post settings after the post is created for categories, SEO, and related options.

What you need

Gather these before you start so you can finish the post in one session:

  • The site you want to publish to, available in My Sites.
  • Your headline and article text, or at least enough to draft with AI.
  • Any images you want in the post, plus a share image if you plan to set Meta image.
  • The categories the post belongs to. You assign posts to categories that already exist on your site.
  • Author details, if this post should credit someone other than the site default.

Open Site Edit

From My Sites, find the site you want to update and select SITE EDIT.

The SITE EDIT button on a site card

Site Edit opens with a live preview of your site and a toolbar across the top. The toolbar is where you find Pages, Add New, Settings, and Ask AI.

Open Add New

In the Site Edit toolbar, select Add New.

The Add New panel highlighting Blog post
  1. Pages tab: Stay on this tab to create a blog post. The Lead Capture and Listings tabs contain other page types, not posts.
  2. Module card: Adds a module to the current page — not a blog post. Use it only when you want to add a section to the page already in the preview.
  3. Default Page card: Creates a regular page instead of a post. Choose this for standalone content such as a service or team page.
  4. Blog post card: Creates a new blog post. This is the card you want.
  5. Add to header menu checkbox: Usually leave this off for individual posts; keep your Blog index page in navigation instead.

If you don't see the Blog post card, check that the Pages tab is selected. Switching to Lead Capture or Listings replaces the grid with those page types.

Create the post

  1. Confirm the Pages tab is selected and Add to header menu is set the way you want it.
  2. Select Blog post in the Add New grid.
  3. Wait for Site Edit to create the post and open it in the preview.
  4. Select Settings to open This Blog Post.

Expected result: the new post loads in the preview as a single blog post page, and the Settings drawer's first section is labeled This Blog Post. The draft bar also appears at the bottom of the workspace with a change waiting, because creating a post is a draft change until you publish.

Write the post content

The article body is edited directly on the page rather than in a settings field:

  1. Hover the post title or article content in the preview until Site Edit outlines it and shows its edit controls.
  2. Type your changes in place, or use the AI (sparkle) action to draft or rewrite the text and review the result in the live preview.
  3. If this post needs a custom module set, open Modules, turn on Enable custom modules, then add sections using the Modules hub or the blue + control on the preview.

To edit the post's main article content, edit it directly on the page — hover the content in the preview and edit it by hand or with AI. See Editing Content on the Page.

Finish post settings

In This Blog Post:

  1. Use General for author details, featured state, access, and SEO fields.
  2. Use Categories to assign categories.
  3. Use Design for layout changes. In Modules or Widgets, turn on Enable custom modules or Enable custom sidebar before giving this post its own module or sidebar setup.

The controls you are most likely to need on a brand-new post are:

  • Set as featured: Marks the post as featured so themes that highlight featured posts can pick it up.
  • Featured image: Sets or replaces the image associated with the post.
  • Custom Author: Turn this on to show Author name, Bio, and author Image for this post. Use Edit content below Bio to format the biography in the rich-text editor.
  • SEO SETTINGS: Turn this on to fill in Meta title, Meta description, Meta keywords, and Meta image, which control how the post is described in search results and when it is shared. See Page and Post SEO.
  • Include publish date in the URL: Controls the post's URL format. It does not schedule the post for a future date.
  • Accessible for logged in users only and Password protect: Restrict who can read the post. Leave both off for a public post.

On the Categories tab, use Search categories to find a category, then select its checkbox. A post can belong to more than one category, and the categories you assign determine which category listings the post appears in.

Help readers find the post

New posts are reached through your blog rather than the header menu:

  • Leave Add to header menu off for individual posts and keep the Blog index page in your navigation, so every new post appears there automatically.
  • Confirm the post shows up on the blog index in the preview after publishing.
  • To point at the post from elsewhere on the site, link to it from a module or button, or from a sidebar widget on the pages where it is relevant.

Publish your changes

Select PUBLISH in the draft bar to apply pending Site Edit changes to the live site, or DISCARD to remove them.

Important: PUBLISH applies every pending Site Edit change in the draft, not only the post you just created. Review the change summary in the draft bar before you publish.

For more about applying or removing pending changes, see Publishing and Discarding Drafts.

Troubleshooting

  • Settings shows This Page instead of This Blog Post. The preview is on a regular page, not the post. Close Settings, open Pages, switch to the Blog Posts filter, select the post, then reopen Settings.
  • You can't find the new post. Open Pages and use the Blog Posts filter to list posts, then select the post to load it in the preview.
  • A preview link does not open the post you expected. Open Pages, use the Blog Posts filter, and select the post directly.
  • Hovering the content doesn't show edit controls. Not every surface supports on-page editing. Use Settings, Modules, or Widgets for those areas.
  • The post isn't visible on the live site. Check that you selected PUBLISH in the draft bar, and that Accessible for logged in users only and Password protect are off on the General tab.
  • You created a page instead of a post. The Default Page card creates a page. Create the post from the Blog post card, and use DISCARD if you want to remove the unpublished page along with other pending draft changes.

Need more help?

For questions, concerns, or feedback, chat with our team at app.placester.com/chat.

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