In Cartum, you can create a blog to publish articles, news, promotions, in-depth product reviews, how-to guides, and other textual content.
These informational materials not only help to provide the buyer with additional useful information, but also help to improve the SEO performance of the website and help to attract additional traffic.
Displaying the blog on the website
Links to the blog section are displayed in the information menu in the header and footer.
Links to the blog page, its sections, and post pages are added to the sitemap in XML and HTML formats.
On the homepage, blog posts are displayed in a separate block. You can independently change the color of its elements and their location relative to other blocks on the homepage. To do this, go to the Website → Design → Design editor section of the admin panel, expand the Homepage item and customize the Blog element.
Blog block on the homepage
At your request, support specialists can change the way posts are displayed on the homepage and add a second block with posts.
There are two options for displaying posts in a blog block: in a row and in a column.
Displaying posts in a row
Blog posts are displayed in a row in the full width of the home page.
Displaying posts in a column
Blog posts are displayed as a column next to the About us block.
Two blocks with articles on the homepage
Additionally, you can maintain two groups of blog posts on the homepage and display them in different blocks.
How to create a blog
The Blog section has already been created on the site by default and is located in the admin panel in the Pages section.
If you do not see Blog in the list of pages, you may have deleted it earlier. In this case, you need to create the section again.
To create a blog:
In the admin panel, go to Website → Pages and click [+] to the right of the main page.
The window for creating a new page will open.
Be sure to specify a Page title — for example, Blog.
In the Template field, select News and save the page.
Attention: the link to the blog page is generated automatically based on the specified title. If necessary, you can change it using the edit function in the URL field.
Blog subsections
In the Blog section, you can implement your own structure and maintain, for example, several topics. This will make it easier for site visitors to navigate the information.
To create a subsection within a blog:
Click [+] to the right of Blog.
In the window that opens, enter the Page title for the subsection. The URL will be generated automatically after you enter the title.
In the Template field, select News and save the page.
Displaying blog posts
Cartum provides two formats for displaying posts on a blog page: a table and a list. Contact support to set up the option you need.
Displaying posts as a table
Posts are displayed in the form of tiles in the table.
Displaying posts as a list
Posts are displayed on the page in the form of a list with a brief summary of the article content.
How to publish a blog post
To create a new article:
Go to Pages and click on the name of the blog section where the post will be published.
Click the + Add button in the upper right corner.
The Date field will be automatically set to today's date. You can set a date in the past, the article will appear in the blog immediately, but will be displayed chronologically according to the date set. If you select a date in the future, the post will become available to visitors at the time of that date.
In the Title field, enter the title of the post. An alias for the link to the publication will be automatically generated.
If you need to set a different alias for the article, click Edit in the URL field.
Article excerpt — a brief description of the post. It will be displayed on the blog page if you have selected to display posts as a list.
In the Text field, add the text of the post. The field has a visual editor that allows you to insert images, tables, and set formatting.
Check the Promo box if the post is related to a promotional offer. Such posts will be marked with a special label in the list of publications.
Check the Forbid to comment box if you want to restrict this feature for this article.
Check the Show on storefront box and save the page.
Please note: the translation of the article into the languages enabled on the website can be entered in the appropriate fields for each language version.
Setting up an image for a post to show in the post list
In addition to the images in the text of the post, you can upload the images:
Image — an image that will accompany the post in the general list of publications. You can upload images in JPG, JPEG, or PNG formats. The orientation is landscape. The aspect ratio is 1:1.5. The recommended image size is up to 1200x800 pixels. Minimum size: 200 × 200 pixels.
Сover — a mini-banner on the news page. You can upload images in JPG, JPEG, or PNG formats. The orientation is landscape. The aspect ratio is 3:1. The recommended size is 1200x400 pixels.
These images will also be used when reposting to social media.
Sharing posts on social media
On the post page, you can display a block with buttons for reposting to social media.
To set it up, go to the Website → Social networks section of the admin panel.
Open required social network settings and activate the Share button block. Here you can also change the button text.
Comments to the posts
Any user can leave a comment on the news page if it is not restricted by the parameters of the post. You can find new comments in the Customer reviews section of the admin panel.
Block with products on the post page
You can add a block with recommended products to the post page. This block will be displayed at the bottom of the page below the post text.
Up to 24 products can be displayed in the carousel at a time. Only products with the In stock status are included in the block. The order of displaying products in the block is similar to sorting in the catalog.
To set up the block, on the post creation/editing page, in the Related products block, add the required Category from the list or add specific products by SKU or title in the Add product field.
Please note: if you have added categories and individual products to the product block, the products selected in the Add product field will be displayed first, followed by products from the categories.
SEO settings
Meta-data for blog sections and articles can be entered in the page settings or using SEO templates.
If the fields in the SEO block are filled in for a subsection or article, the SEO template will not apply to this page.