Blogs

Blogging can be an excellent tool for promoting your products, giving your store a personal touch, and boosting your site's SEO ranking.

By default, a basic blog is included on the WineDirect platform. The theme controls the look and feel of the blog. To access the blog, go to Storefront › Blog.

Need more blogging features? Blogging platforms like WordPress can be used with WineDirect. They offer more design options, plugins, and features such as multilingual support.

Blog Visibility

Every new store has a built-in blog visible by default. If you use a different blogging platform or don't want to use a blog, toggle the Blog Visibility to remove all blog links from your storefront's header and footer.

Turning Blog Visibility off will not disable the blog. Anyone that has the URL to a blog post will still be able to access it. Unpublish or delete blog posts created with the built-in blog if you are moving to a different blog platform or wish to disable the blog.

Creating a Blog Post

1. Go to Storefront › Blog then click the + button.

2. Give the post a Title, then add your content to the Body.

3. Click Publish when you are ready for the post to be seen by your audience. Otherwise, click Save Draft to save your work and publish it later.

OPTIONAL FIELDS

• Author — designates who wrote this particular blog post
• Tags — used for categorizing similar blog posts
• Summary thumbnail image — displays a thumbnail image to be included in the blog post and summary.

SEO FIELDS

• Post URL — designates a specific URL for the post; by default, the URL is based on the post's Title.
• If the Post URL changes — it indicates whether old links should forward to the new URL. Our default is always to forward them.
• Meta description — specifies the description that will appear in the appropriate meta tag for this post.

Blog Settings

Click the Action menu to access the Blog Settings. Here you can update the blog's navigation title, URL, and social settings and allow readers to post comments.

ABOUT THIS BLOG

• Blog Title — The name that will appear in your store's navigation. Keeping this short and simple is best.
• Blog Description — The description that will appear in your store's navigation. Keeping this short and simple is best.
• Blog URL — You can enter a custom URL if you'd like. By default, the URL is based on the Blog Title.

SOCIAL SHARING

The share settings control your customers' options to share your blog posts across different social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. You can modify these by clicking the desired social media site in your store's Display settings.

COMMENTS

Stores with Stencil themes can use Disqus for blog comments by following the instructions in Using Disqus with Stencil. If you use a legacy Blueprint theme, see Blueprint Themes for more information.

RECENT BLOG POSTS

Some Stencil themes in the Theme Marketplace, such as Milano and Exhibit,  allow you to define how many blog posts to show on your store's homepage. If so, that setting will usually be found in Page Builder. Using a legacy Blueprint theme, you can manage recent blog posts in your display settings.