Creating blog content on your marketplace offers numerous benefits. It can aid with search engine optimization (SEO) by driving organic traffic to your site through regularly updated content with relevant keywords. Additionally, sharing valuable insights on a blog positions your marketplace as an industry authority, building trust and credibility with potential users.
Sharetribe allows you to create a simple blog with Pages. Pages is Sharetribe's native content editor for building and editing content pages published in your marketplace. Learn more about Pages.
Pages does not have an automatic way to create hierarchies between different content pages. This is important for a blog, where you typically want to have an overview page or category page under which you store blog articles. We will work around this by setting up such a page (step 1) and linking all the content we create back to it as content blocks (step 3).
You can see how a blog works on Yogatime, a demo marketplace set up by the Sharetribe team. Yogatime is an example marketplace for booking yoga instructors. Check out the Yogatime marketplace.
1. Create the homepage for your blog
First, create a page that will serve as the homepage for your blogs. On this page, you will later link all the blog articles you create on the marketplace:
Go to your Console's Build section > Content > Pages > Click on + Create a new page.
Name the Page ID simply "blog." Once created, the Page ID cannot be changed and is used as the URL for your marketplace content pages (example.com/p/page_id).
Click "Edit content" on the newly created page and select the Hero section template.
Fill in the Section name to help you remember what the section's content is about
Add the name of your blog in the Section title field
(Optional) Add a description of the type of content users can expect from this blog to the Section description page.
Select the "Custom" Section appearance to add a background image for the blog.
Save changes.
See the end result for the hero section. You can link your blog homepage in various places within your marketplace, such as the top bar, footer, or specific sections on your landing page.
2. Create blog articles
Second, create blog articles for your marketplace. You can write about any relevant topic specific to your marketplace's concept, industry, or niche:
Go to your Console's Build section > Content > Pages > and Click on + Create a new page....
Name the Page ID according to the title of your blog article. In this example, we'll use "Beginner's Guide to Yoga" as the title.
Click "Edit content" on the newly created page and elect the Article Section template.
Fill in the Section name to help you remember what the section's content is about
Add the title of your blog article to the Section title field
(Optional) add a brief summary of the blog article's content to the Section description field.
Select the "Default" Section appearance.
Proceed to add a new content block by clicking on + Add a new block
Fill in the Block name to help you remember what the block's content is about
Add an image by choosing Image in the Block Media. Enter a text in the Image alt text field for accessibility. You can choose any Aspect ratio.
Fill in the Block text field with text content for your blog article.
Save changes.
See an example blog article on Yogatime created following the steps outlined above. You may follow and repeat this process to create additional blog articles on your marketplace.
3. Link your blog articles to the blog homepage
Once you have created a few blog articles, it is now time to link them to your blog homepage:
Go to your Console's Build section > Content > Pages > Select the blog homepage you created in Step 1, and click on + Add a new section.
Fill in the Section name to help you remember what the section's content is about.
Select the Columns Section template and select the 4 as the Number of columns
(Optional) In the Section title, write something like "Check out our latest blogs".
Proceed to add a new content block by clicking on + Add a new block.
Fill in the Block name to help you remember what the block's content is about.
In the Block name field, write the title of the blog article you're linking
Add the same image you used in the blog article by choosing Image in the Block Media. Enter a text in the Image alt text field for accessibility. Choose the "Original" Aspect ratio.
(Optional) In the Block text field, enter the publishing date of the blog.
Enter the title of the blog article in the Internal link text field.
Enter the link to the blog article page in the Internal link address field. The format should be
/p/blog-article-idSave changes.
You can repeat steps 5-11 to link more blog articles to the blog homepage. See the end result example on Yogatime, where 4 blog articles are linked to the blog homepage.
4. Add meta tag descriptions to your blog pages
After creating your homepage and blog articles, you should configure the SEO & Social tab of those pages by adding metadata tags. Metadata tags inform search engines and social media platforms how to display links to your site when they are shared.
Additional tips
Below are some additional tips on how to maximize and make the most of your blog content.
Anchor links: Anchor links enhance user experience by enabling quick navigation to specific web page sections. If you want to link directly to a specific section of your blog, you can specify an anchor link ID using Pages. You can then link to the section with a URL like this: https://www.example.com/p/blog#herosection.
Call to action: Adding a compelling call-to-action (CTA) at the end of a blog article in a marketplace setting can be very useful for engaging your audience and driving desired outcomes. A well-placed CTA can guide readers toward taking important actions such as signing up for an account, publishing a listing, or making a booking, thus enhancing user experience and increasing conversion rates.
Using Markdown: You can format text in your blog articles using Markdown to enhance their readability. Markdown allows you to structure and organize your content, making it easier to navigate and understand. Learn how to format text with Markdown.
Breadcrumbs: A breadcrumb is a navigational aid typically found at the top of a webpage that shows the user's location within a website's hierarchy. It usually appears as a series of links separated by arrows or other symbols, illustrating the path from the homepage to the current page. Your users can benefit from having an easy way to backtrack to previous sections, enhancing the overall navigation experience. See an example of a breadcrumb in a Yogatime blog article.