So you want to create an Elementor Blog Post
Okay, you’ve just taken delivery of your freshly designed Elementor Word Press website and want to create your first blog post. We’ve put together a step my step guide on doing just that. So hold tight, here we go. Log into your WordPress site with the details we would have sent you.
Step 1 Create a blog post
Once you are logged into your WordPress website, you will have a black bar at the top of the screen with all the options you have at your disposal.
From the top tool bar you will have a drop down menu under +New. This will allow you to create content for your website. Blog stories come under the Post category. Select this from list.
Step 2 Give your blog a title
Give your blog post a title that best describes what your article is about. The best way to go about this is to think about what you would type in Google to found out about the subject you are about to post.
Step 3 Save a draft
Once you have you SEO friendly title in place you can save a draft of your post. It is best practise to do this before you publish so an unfinished blog does not get out into the big wide world before its ready.
Step 4 Edit your post with Elementor
This is where the fun starts. You can now switch to editing in Elementor instead of the basic WordPress editor. The post will still be in the default template mode but will have all the possibilities of a Elementor page.
Now you will have all the tools we have when we create your website to create your blog. As we would have created all the rules on how the web site should function all you need to do is type away and drop a few images in… well kind of.
Step 5 Add text to your blog post
Time to get you opening paragraph in to the blog. Drag the Text Editor element on to the deposit areas on the blog page.
You will now be presented with the text editor with some Lorem ipsum dummy copy. Delete this and we can start getting you blog post started. There are a few rules you will need to follow in order for your post to look good for Google and help it with its ranking. Just like with a book headers and contents play a part in blogging good practice.
Here comes the science
The title of your post would be the name of the book, the thing that makes someone want to read it. This is know as the H1 TAG. You can have one of these only so the search engines now what your article as about. You then use H2 TAG’s in the same way contents work in a book or magazine. So with the Get Fit Stay Fit Norfolk blog post in the example the phrase “Shoulder Trauma” was selected as the term that Google would be offered as a search term. This is the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) that we will use throughout the post to allow it to be listed under that phrase.
As we have already set up the type formatting for the site the when you add headings they will automatically take on the look assigned for headings, one less thing for you to worry about. As you can see the text in the editor on the left shows the unformatted text but the preview on the right has picked up the typography we have assign for the H2 TAG.
Step 6 Add an image to your blog post
Its always a to have images throughout a blog post. It helps to break up reams of text and is another opportunity for a little bit of SEO. In the same way we added the text box to the blog we and drag in the image element.
When we created your website we would have set rules on how images would work on your site. This goes for on page images and your featured image which we have covered in another blog. Its not just a case of dragging a picture in from your mobile phone… that just wont cut it.
When adding images to your website its a must to make sure they tie in with the content and are not larger than they need to be. When an image will be displayed full width on your web site the default size will be pulled from the theme settings. You can format any pictures you want use in a free site called PIXLR. When you save your new masterpiece you need to have the search terms you used in the file name. Lets face it IMG1234.jpg gives nothing away about what the picture is of.
Now you have your image ready to go in the body of your blog post and can click on the dummy image place holder on the left hand editor and you will be prompted to import your image. You can either drag the file on to the import media panel or click the file rester, which ever is your prefered way of getting a file in to a document.
Here comes some for of the science… As we created a file name that reflects the content of the blog post title we can edit the properties of the image and how it will be indexed by your website and searched by Google. Images must have an ALT TEXT this will also include the SEO search term. Then you have the option to add a caption for image. This can be displayed in the image to inform of any credits or copyright normally. Its now alway required to be displayed on the screen and can mess with a clean look.
Then you can add a disruption for the image. This is not displayed on the screen but it indexed on the site and crawled by the search engines. Again its always good to have the SEO term listed in here as well.
If your image refers to another page on your website and a link on another site you can add a hyperlink here. You should always have links on a web page or blog post both to your own website and an external site or social media content. Google uses this to see how your brand is working. We used this in this post to good effect. We have linked to a couple of our own services and also a external link to the Get Fit Stay Fit Norfolk website. We also like to make any external links open in a separate browser tab so we dont take the viewer away from your own site if they choose to follow the link.
Now you’ll need save all your hard work. This can be done by simply clicking the green box at the bottom help of the screen. If you have not already published your page it the green button will say PUBLISH, if you have come back to makes some edits to your blog post it will say UPDATE. You must click this button to ensurey you do not loose all the work you have done.
You are now ready to add the finishing touches to you blog post. You will need to add a featured image. We have an article on creating the perfect blog post image in our how to articles, Check out how to create your post featured image. It is well worth a ready to make sure your imagery performs on all the devices it could be view on.
Step 7 Add a featured image to your post
WordPress websites use the featured image as an eye catching way of getting your blog posts noticed. The featured image will also be used when a page or blog post is being shared on social media. As you have been editing your blog in Elementor you are going to need to get back the the WordPress dashboard for you post. This can be done easily by clicking on the burger menu at the top left of the screen.
When you get the drop down you will have the option of EXIT TO DASHBOARD. Click this and you will be back on the wordpress side of the post. Now you will have the option to add the featured image at the bottom right of the side bar on the right of the screen.
Click the Set featured image link and you can select the jpeg or if you are using the new and smaller format for images WEBP file. After a couple of seconds you will see the featured image showing.
Okay, that is it. You have created your very own blog post. One last thing you need to do. At the top of the right hand side bar you will the the Publish details for you post. Click on the Update button and Bobs you uncle. Your blog post is ready to view and share with the world. Happy blogging and we look forward to seeing how you get on creating your own blogs.
