Blog Projects
A blog project uses HelpGuides to publish a blog instead of a documentation site. It has the same editor, search and AI tools, but the site, the admin screens and the SEO markup are built around dated posts rather than a category tree.
Set up a blog project
New projects are created as documentation projects, and the project type can't be changed from Settings. To set up a blog project, contact support.
Once your project is a blog, the left navigation adds Categories and Ads, and Content shows a list of posts instead of the category tree.
Manage your posts
Click Content to see all your posts. The list shows each post's Title, Author, Categories, Status, Views, Created date and Published date.
- Type in Search ... to find posts by title.
- Use Filter to show All Posts, Published, Draft, Scheduled, Has Working Copy or Deleted posts. Has Working Copy finds published posts with edits that haven't been published yet.
- Switch between the list view and a grid of post cards with the view buttons. The grid loads more posts as you scroll.
- Click Create Post, enter a Name and click Add post to start a new post.
To plan when posts go out, set a future publish date in the editor and use the Calendar page to see what's scheduled.
Categories
Click Categories in the left navigation. Your categories are listed on the left; click one to see its description and the posts in it, with each post's status and URL.
- Click Add to create a category. Enter a name and description, and optionally an image and colors on the Image and Style tab, then click Create.
- Click the pencil icon to edit a category, or the trash icon to delete it. You can't delete a category that still has posts.
The category fields are the same as in documentation projects. See Organizing Content with Categories.
Ads
Ads let you promote your own offers, such as a guide, a webinar or a free trial, inside your blog posts. Click Ads in the left navigation. There are two kinds, each on its own tab:
| Tab | Where it appears |
|---|---|
| Inline | Inside the post, before the third h2 heading (or before the eighth paragraph if the post has fewer headings). Inline ads can include an image |
| Footer | At the end of the post. Footer ads don't use an image |
A post shows at most one inline ad and one footer ad.
Create an ad
Click Add Inline Ad or Add Footer Ad, fill in the three tabs and click Create.
| Tab | Field | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| Content | Title | The ad's headline. Required |
| Content | Body text | A short description below the title. Required |
| Content | Destination URL | Where the ad links to. Required |
| Content | Button / CTA | The button label, for example "Get the guide". Required |
| Content | Use custom colors | Turn on to set a Background color and Text color. Leave off to match the blog theme, including dark mode |
| Image | Ad Image | The picture shown in inline ads |
| Image | Layout | Two columns — image beside text or Single column — image on top, text below |
| Targeting | Keyword triggers | Semicolon-separated keywords, for example email; inbox; deliverability. Leave empty to make this a default ad |
| Targeting | Sort order | Breaks ties between ads that match equally well. Lower numbers win |
| Targeting | Enabled | Show this ad on the blog. Turn off to pause an ad without deleting it |
How ads are chosen
For each post, HelpGuides compares every enabled ad's keyword triggers with the post's keywords and shows the best match for each slot:
- An exact keyword match beats a partial one, such as
pickleballmatchingpickleball registration. - Matches on the post's first keywords count for more than matches on later ones, because a post's keywords are listed most important first.
- If no ad matches, an ad with no keyword triggers is used. If ads tie, the lowest Sort order wins.
A post's keywords are in the editor under Advanced → SEO → Keywords. They're generated automatically, and you can edit them.
Click tracking
Each ad in the list shows how many times it has been clicked. Use this to compare offers and retire ads that don't perform.
What readers see
- Blog home page. Your site title, a light and dark mode switch, a Search the blogs ... box and a grid of your latest posts, 12 at a time, with featured images.
- Post pages. The title, reading time, last updated date, author (Written by:, linked to the author's page), featured image, the post itself, your ads and Related Articles.
- Author pages. A profile page for each author listing their posts. See Authors and Author Pages.
Blog post URLs end with a trailing slash, for example https://blog.example.com/my-first-post/.
Structured data
Each post includes BlogPosting structured data with the headline, description, publish and modified dates, featured image, keywords, the author as a Person (with their URL, photo and bio when set), and your site as the publisher, with its logo. See Structured Data.
RSS and JSON feeds
Your blog has an RSS feed at /feed and a JSON feed at /site.json, both newest first. Every page links to the RSS feed, so feed readers can find it from any post. See Feeds and Machine-Readable Formats for paging and filtering.
Related articles
- Authors and Author Pages
- Feeds and Machine-Readable Formats
- Structured Data
- Setup Reverse Proxy, for serving your blog from a path such as
example.com/blog - Finding Broken Links with the SEO Report
- Dashboard