Blog upload and approval process

Owned by Laura S (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Oct 09, 2019 by Toby Bradford (Unlicensed)
5 min read

Coordination

The blog is straightforward in terms of coordination. The key is to utilise daily content huddles to communicate upcoming blog posts and identify blog opportunities.

Other things to note:

  • Ensure all parties are made aware, via the huddle, when posts are likely to be going live so that everyone knows what is due out and that there is no clash in terms of topics

  • Try and include an update on which blogs have gone live that week in the Weekly Update, keeping the wider team informed, encouraging them to use the posts in their comms, and also acting as a reminder for people to contribute to the blog

Blog process

Typically:

  • Someone identifies a gap in content or has a blog post idea, whether that be a student, academic or staff member

  • Discuss the idea with the prospective author

  • The author will need to draft a post and send it over for approval

  • You will need to read through the draft and either approve or identify any amends

  • Ask the author to fill out an Author Profile Form (https://derbyuni.wufoo.com/forms/xqbl22z09jprf9/) – Blog posts MUST have an author profile - without a profile the post should not be published

  • The completed form will be sent through to Jira as a ticket titled ‘Digital - WordPress Author Form [#XX]’

  • Once received, upload the author profile and format the blog post ready for publishing

Uploading an Author profile

  • Open the Jira ticket with the submitted form

  • Go into WordPress and select Authors in the left hand column

  • Once in the list of authors, select Add New at the top of the page

  • Copy all the details from the form to WordPress

    • Author name --> Title

    • Author role --> Subtitle

    • Social media information is a direct copy

    • Telephone – if a mobile number is provided for a student don’t include it on the profile

    • Experts guide link – for use by Corporate Communications

    • Email – ensure you remove any mailto: that may be included

    • About – this needs to be a short bio that doesn’t exceed four lines

  • Every author profile must have a picture – it is a compulsory field. To upload this, scroll down the page in WordPress and select Set featured image in the right column

  • Check the image is at least 200x200px. The image MUST be exactly square otherwise it will not pull through or sit properly in WordPress

  • You may need to resize the image if it’s not the correct size

  • Once square, drag and drop image into the Media Library

  • Rename Title with the author/blog name

  • Add Alt text describing what’s in the image

  • Make sure your image is highlighted by a blue square and tick

  • Click Select in the bottom right hand corner to select your chosen image

  • Preview the profile via the grey button in the top right corner

  • Check that all the links to social media profiles work correctly

  • Publish the profile via the blue button in the top right corner

Formatting a blog post

  • Check the length of the blog piece. It should be a minimum of 500 words and a maximum of 1500. If the post is outside of these restrictions, send the post back to the author and ask them to increase or decrease it as required

  • Once you’re happy with post content, copy and paste it as plain text into the WYSIWYG (you can do this in the new block format or classic format)

Format your post as follows:

  • Introductory paragraph should be in bold and medium font – only accessible in new WordPress blocks format, not in old ‘Classic Block’

  • Sub headings should be in Heading 2

  • If using bullet points or numbering, use the ones provided in the WYSIWYG

  • Unless absolutely necessary, avoid putting images in the body of text, instead put them in a gallery at the bottom of the page

  • If you want to add a Tweet Quote option in which you can set up a button for people to quote a specific tweet or link to the blog post, you can do this with the Click to Tweet WordPress plugin

  • Once happy with your copy, scroll down to add your author by selecting from the dropdown menu (please note the search facility does not work so you’ll have to scroll to find the relevant author)

  • Add a featured image, sized

  • Select the Set featured image button and upload by dragging and dropping your image into the Media Library

  • The image must be 800x450px and will display at the top of the blog post

  • Use images specific to the blog or stock images found on Thirdlight or, as a last resort, from a royalty free image website such as Unsplash or Pexels

  • Rename Title with the author/blog name

  • Add Alt text describing what’s in the image

  • Make sure your image is highlighted by a blue square and tick

  • Click Select in the bottom right hand corner to select your chosen image

  • Add a CTA by selecting the drop down menu and choosing the campaign most relevant to the audience you anticipate reading the article

  • Select your chosen CTA and then copy and paste the code into your post where you’d like it to appear

  • Add a subject area (if relevant)

  • Add tags with relevant key words

  • Select at least one category

  • This is how a correctly formatted blog post should look on the front end

SEO

Finally, scroll down to the bottom of the page and fill out the Yoast SEO plugin.

  • Add a relevant Focus Keyword

  • Aim to get both Readability and Keyword indicators to green, or amber at least

  • Follow the Analysis section to make any amends to improve SEO optimisation

  • When the Analysis refers to the Slug it is referring to the snippet, so click on Edit snippet to review the slug and meta description. You must have a good meta description which includes the keyword and shows as green in the line beneath

  • Preview the post via the grey button in the top right corner

  • Publish or schedule the post via the blue button in the top right corner

Blog approvals

Before approval, blog posts must be proof read and the following need to be checked:

  • Title is the right length - it should be short enough to sit on a single line

  • Post is formatted properly with headers etc

  • Yoast is fully filled out and is green (where possible)

  • Content is accessible - the Hemingway app is a good way to judge whether or not it’s an easy read (avoid jargon and ensure any technical/academic content is explained)

  • Author profile has been assigned

  • Header image is appropriate and correctly sized

  • Post is tagged with relevant categories, subjects and key words

  • The permalink/URL slug has the important searchable words [don’t change after publication or you risk a broken link]

  • A CTA has been added

If any of these are missing or incorrect you will need to amend these before publishing