Blog

Unique content is one the most successful ways to improve the search engine ranking of your shop. In addition to clear item descriptions, which should be as clear as possible and include important keywords, operating your own blog can dramatically improve your SEO (search engine optimization).

A blog is essentially a web diary in which you publish information and news from various fields. This is an opportunity to keep customers up to date with articles containing insider tips which are not found on the shop website. This might include information about employees or tips and tricks concerning your range of items. The possibilities are diverse, so be creative and give your customers a more personal look into your shop. It can be said that the more you invest into your shop with unique content, the better you will be rated by search engines.

Creating categories

To display your articles, you must first create a subcategory. Create a subcategory under Items/Categories, using a title that corresponds with the category tree of your shop.

Be sure both the Active and Blog category boxes are selected. Although items cannot be assigned as a blog subcategory, it is possible to include links to items in the body of your article.

Creating articles

Create a blog article by selecting Content/Blog. Here you will find a general overview of all the blog articles available to be displayed in the shop. Blog articles can be edited, deleted, and duplicated within this window.

Click Add blog article at the top of the window to access the article configuration.

Blog articles cannot be translated. Should you have a multilingual shop, you will need to create separate categories for each language represented in your shop.

Overview of available fields

• Title: This is the heading or title of the article.
• Author: The author can be selected from the registered backend users.
• Active: Select this to make the article visible in the frontend.
• Description: This acts as a teaser for your article. This text will appear below the title on the blog detail page in the frontend.

Additional options

• Template: Here you can choose your own template, which you create under Settings > Basic Settings > Storefront > Shopping Cart / Item Details. You can find more information here.
• Display date: Here you can compose an article and control when it will be published. You have the option of posting immediately or waiting for a later date. The date of publication will be displayed in the article.
• Display time: Similar to the date, you can also control what time the article will be published. The time will also be displayed in the article in the frontend.
• Category: Select which category the article will be listed under.
• Tags: Tags are compatible with filter properties. Multiple values can be stored by pressing Enter after each tag. Additionally, categories can be filtered according to these tags.
• Image Configuration: Allows to use images from the media manager and mark an image as preview. Images no longer need to be stored in the "Blog" Album. Any image can be used now.

Assigned items

Assign existing articles from your shop to your blog article using this function (1). You can see which articles have already been assigned in the list (2) below.

Links to these assigned items will be displayed in the frontend.

Search Engine Optimization

• Keywords: Separate your multiple keywords using a comma. These will be used as metadata in the source code.
• Description: The description is also stored as a meta tag in the source code.

Click the Generate preview button to see how the text will be displayed in the frontend.

Attributes

Here you can find additional free text fields for use exclusively in the backend.

Example for a template query of an additional free text field:

{$sArticle.attribute.attribute1}

View Blog Category

Blog Rating System

Individual blog articles, just like articles, can be rated using the comment function below the blog article. The user who has posted a comment will be notified via email (template is sOPTINVOTE) and asked to confirm his comment via a link. As soon as the customer has clicked on the confirmation link in the email, the comment to be activated appears in the blog overview (1).

Now edit the rated blog article in the overview. In the tab Blog article comments (1) you now have the possibility to unlock or delete the comment (2).

The rating function of the blog is independent of the product rating and cannot be deactivated via the backend.