How to create good posts

These guidelines are based on material discussed at a Chamber Breakfast Club session in February 2018 and are published here for members’ reference. The intention is not to prescribe, but rather to pave the way for a website of high standards that is a credit to the Chamber and its members.

The website is itself a work in progress: additional functionality and other improvements under consideration and may be introduced at any time.

One constant, however, is the need for fresh content as often as possible.

Start with good content

The aim is to help people make informed decisions (to buy from you)
News or comment about your business or your marketplace
Reward the reader with valuable information … ‘That’s something I didn’t know”
Don’t assume all readers know the background to your story … always put things into context
Write in an authoritative ‘newsy’ style … facts, figures, direct speech – be bright, not boring
Avoid self-congratulation … it’s for others to praise you

Building reader traffic

Always have something worthwhile to say
Professional presentation every time
Frequent publication
Multi-channel promotion
Social media activity to drive traffic to website
SEO for better Google rankings and greater visibility

Make it look good

Always use a strong headline – present tense, active voice … Man bites dog
Use a good featured image – see below
Add further images to the body copy to break up long articles
Follow ‘House style’ (see below)

Make it work for you

Hyperlink to your own website
If publishing the same article on more than one site, make a few text changes to avoid search engine penalties

Where to start

Write and check your story first
Click +NEW
Then POST
For events – see below

Headings

Write in upper and lower case but do not capitalise the first letter of every word
Headings are automatically capitalised when they appear at the top of the full post
News headings appear in upper and lower on the NEWS headlines page, and in the five latest posts on the HOME page
Offers and Jobs headings work in the same way, but they do not appear on the HOME page

Body copy

Use only the default PARAGRAPH style
It’s advisable to use the PASTE AS TEXT facility to strip out any Word formatting
NOTE: When you input type it appears in a serif font, however, this is over-ridden by the site’s stylesheet and your article will actually appear in a sans serif font
As a guide, keep paragraphs to about 40 words to avoid large ‘slabs’ of type
Sub-headings in the body look best simply in BOLD
Read the article again before submitting

House style

Creates a professional appearance
Readers appreciate some consistency
Time formats – 24hr with colon separator e.g. 07:30
Date formats – d/m; no st, nd, rd, th e.g 13 February
Direct speech – Use double quotes
Special words or quotes within quotes – Use single quotes
Don’t colour the words (hyperlinks automatically appear in red)

Excerpts

Appear on NEWS headlines page
To make no more than three lines of copy
Brief summary, without repeating the headline

Featured image

Every article should have one
Scroll down the right hand side menu to find “Set featured image”
Appears between heading and body on full post
Also appears on NEWS headlines page
Must be horizontal (landscape)
Upload to picture library
You may also use pictures you uploaded previously
Jpeg, png, pdf formats
Avoid small files/low resolution images (unless news value is more important than picture quality)

Add media

Upload additional images to library, the import to body area
Pictures can be scaled
Use options to flow text around
Ideal for vertical (portrait) images
Provide visual relief in lengthy copy

All images: Remember to add a few words of ALT TEXT in the image description

Offers and Jobs

These posts are treated in exactly the same way as news items, but are accessed via the relevant navigation links on each page
OFFERS and JOBS are usually time-related: please us the POST EXPIRATOR panel to select your end-of-publication time

Events

To publish an item on the EVENTS calendar:
Click +EVENT
Heading, body text, featured image and add media (as above)
Fill out the EVENTS CALENDAR panel
Provide link to event website (usually EventBrite or other booking service)
Event heading appears on the public calendar
Hover over reveals featured image and excerpt
Click opens relevant event page
For additional exposure, provide related news items with internal links to relevant event page

Before you submit

Use the PREVIEW facility to check how your post looks
Make any adjustments you feel are necessary
Check where your post is going: find the CATEGORIES panel.
UNCATEGORISED will appear only behind the POSTS tab on your profile page
NEWS will appear in your POSTS, and behind the READ MORE on the NEWS headlines page
OFFERS and JOBS will appear in your POSTS, and behind the READ MORE on the respective headlines page

Have a problem?

If you have any difficulty, please send a note using the CONTACT form. We will get back to you as soon as possible

Publishing guidelines for this website