Adding a page is more than just putting the text and images together and blasting them online. We need to decide where it fits into the hierarchy, what links we will need (and from where this new page will be linked), and there are other things (such as scheduling) to think of. So before putting down the first word of your page, prepare your file to be a page.
Preparing your file
From the main menu, go to Pages, then Add New. This gives you your blank starter.
- Choose your title — short and pithy.
- Go to the Page part of the settings — select the gearwheel next to Publish (top right) if necessary.
- Decide on the parent page now.
You are not restricted to linking the page via the genealogy, but it shows the breadcrumb trail in the URL. - Choose your slug. The default slug is a version of the page title, which may be a bit long. Think about a more concise slug, so that the URL reads logically.
For these “how-to” pages, I took out “how-to-” from the default slug, because “how-to” is the slug for the parent page, and we do not need to repeat these two words. The resulting URL for this page is therefore “https://greenwalks.uk/how-to/add-a-page”. - Write an excerpt of 30-50 words in the Excerpt box.
This ensures that there is a sensible précis rather than just the first n words of the text. The excerpt comes into play if readers perform a search of our pages. - Select a “featured image” if appropriate, selecting from the media library. If there is no suitable image, upload one from your filestore (but be parsimonious: we do not have limitless space).
The featured image may be displayed at the top of the page (but often is not, the author preferring a different image or no image at all), and accompanies the excerpt in any search results. - If you are preparing this in advance of release, go to the Page characteristics on the right margin (if you cannot see them, select the gearwheel at the top right of the WordPress screen area), and set your required date and time next to Publish. Nobody will see the page before that date and time.
Unless you have a specific embargo time, choose a time in the middle of the UK night, but off the hour so that publication does not compete with everyone else publishing on that hour around the globe. I tend to use 0145.
Only now are you ready to start adding content.
Writing your page
- Add your text first, breaking it into shortish paragraphs where there might be a break.
Never ever resort to typewriter mode by pressing Return at the end of what looks like a line to you: Return is only used to delineate paragraphs, each of which becomes a block.
Never ever use underlining — that went out with the typewriter, and is not helpful in text-to-speech. Likewise, do not use ampersands and other such characters. - Add links to pages or posts, using the flow of text: this may mean that you need to rewrite the text to provide an elegant in-the-flow link word or short phrase. Do not use such contrivances as “There is a link here”, linking the word here — that is ugly and lazy: so twentieth-century!
- Add any necessary images (following the how-to guide), resizing them so that they do not overwhelm the text. Be sure to caption each image.
You now have the page ready to go … almost. But before it is published, a quick review is necessary.
Review before publication
- Read it again, slowly, checking for typos, ambiguities or unfortunate wording (for example, “during the Ottoman occupation during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries” — change the first “during” to “throughout” or “when Pécs was under”).
- Read it again to make sure there is no “insider knowledge” assumed in the text. Play a mean Devil’s Advocate.
- Read the excerpt again, and edit it if necessary.
- Check the links once more.
- Preview the page and make any cosmetic adjustments which are necessary.
Review after publication
OK, now you can publish it.
If the page is for immediate publication, go ahead. Then go to the user view of the site (you should have placed a bookmark to https://greenwalks.uk/ on your bookmark bar, so that the public view is always available to you) immediately on publication, and read the page. Make any further adjustments to the “raw” file, update the page, go back to the user view, refresh the page, and look at the new version.
If the page is for delayed publication, review as above from your file. Set a reminder in your online calendar to review it once more shortly before publication, with another reminder at publication time so that you can review the page as published.
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