The basics
Above is a short video showing how a page is put together.
We use pages for content that tends to be more permanent, such an about page, or a page on how get active.
To insert a page, click ‘Add new’ under Pages on the right hand side panel.
Give your page a title – make sure this is simple and direct, informing users clearly what will be on the page. only capitalise the first word, unless you’re the title contains names.
Adding the content
Prepare your text prior to creating the page. If you’ve created your text in Word, it’s best to paste text into Notepad and copy from there to avoid bringing in unnecessary formatting.
Paste your text into the editing pane and format. Here’s some tips:
Break up large blocks of text into separate paragraphs – big chunks of text don’t read well on the web.
Edit the copy using the editing options above the text area. If you only have one row of options select the Toggle Toolbar button at the end of this row – clicking this will make a second row appear!
If your copy is long, it’s also good to add sub-headings where you can. Make sure these too are simple and meaningful. For a subheading, use Heading 2 from the paragraph drop down – don’t use bold.
It’s also good to put lists in bullet points.
You can add links to internal and external pages, but make sure external links open in a new window, but clicking the cog in the hyperlink box and ticking the ‘Open in a new window’ box.
The except field and Yoast SEO
After adding the text, the next fields, Except and the Yoast SEO settings, help your page to perform well in the internal and external (Google etc) search.
Add a short paragraph under Except that explains what your page is about. For example, the except on a page about UNISON, might be: ‘UNISON represent staff who provide public services in the public and private sector. Find out more about what we do.’
Make sure the except contains key words from the page. – in this case ‘about’ and ‘UNISON’.
Under the Yoast SEO settings you can paste the text you wrote for Except into Meta description (but make sure it’s under 156 characters).
Focus keyword should again be a word or phrase that reflects what the page is about, in this case ‘About UNISON’.
WordPress generates a SEO title for you, but you can edit this to add a number of relevant phrases, separated by a hyphen of straight slash, or a question to is relevant to the page. For example, a page about becoming a union rep could have a meta title of: Thinking of becoming a union rep?| UNISON stewards.
Tags, images and other settings
Featured tag
If you want to add documents to the page, you will need to add a ‘Featured Tag’. To do this, create a tag by typing one into Tags on the left hand side of the page.
Save the page and then go down to Featured tags, near the bottom of the right hand side. Add your newly created tag here. If you tag relevant documents with this tag, they will appear as a Resources list on the page.
Featured image
To add an image, or a video, to the top of the page, go to the very top of the right hand side panel and select either image or video from under ‘Featured image’. This will open the Media Library.
Select your image from here and add.
Inserting the page under an existing one
If you wish to add your page under an existing page, go down to Page Attributes on the right hand side.
Select the parent page from the list. You can then add a number under Order, to determine where your page appears amongst other sub pages.