Blog & Articles
On this page
The Blog & Articles addon puts a blog on your website. You write articles about hearing care, sort them into categories, and readers can read, like, share and comment on them. Comments wait for your approval, and you can answer them in public.
It is for the centre that answers the same questions twice a week on the phone: what tinnitus is, how long a battery lasts, when a child should be tested. Answer it once, in public, and send the link. Articles also bring visitors from search engines.
Switching it on
Blog & Articles is a premium addon, so it has to be in your licence first.
- Buy it with Buy this addon on its card on Admin → Addons. When the order is confirmed, the key comes down by itself at the next licence check; Collect purchases now under License → Addon keys fetches it at once. The addon is normally switched on as it arrives.
- A key you got some other way goes in the Addon key box under License → Addon keys. Paste it and press Add the key.
- If its card on Admin → Addons still says Disabled, press Enable.
The addon starts with four categories: Hearing health, Hearing aids, Children and Centre news.
Where to find it
The addon has its own heading in the sidebar, Blog & Articles Addons:
- Posts: the articles.
- Categories: the groups articles are sorted into.
- Comments: what readers wrote, waiting for you.
- Settings: the addon's settings.
The permissions, in the Blog group under Roles & Permissions, are See posts and comments, Write, edit and publish posts and Approve and delete comments. An audiologist can write articles while the manager approves the comments.
Writing an article
Posts → + Add an article. Write the answer you give on the phone. One question per article beats one long page.
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Headline | The title. Required. |
| The one-line summary | Shown on the cards and in search results. |
| The article | The text, in a full editor with headings, lists, links and pictures. |
| Picture | The main picture, shown on the cards and at the top of the article. |
| Category | One of your categories. |
| Written by | The author's name shown on the article. It starts as you. |
| Tags | Words people might search for, for example tinnitus, children, batteries. |
| Publish on | The publication date. A date in the future keeps it hidden until then. |
| Feature this one | Marks the article as a featured one. |
| Status | Draft or Published. Readers see only published articles. |
| Meta title, Meta description | Under Search engines: what Google shows for this article. Leave them empty to use the headline and summary. |
Press Save. The list of articles shows the picture, the headline with its summary, the date, the number of Reads and the status. Reads are counted once per reader per day, so refreshing the page does not inflate them.
Categories
Categories → + Add a category. Each has a Name, What goes in it, an Order and a Status (In use or Hidden). The web address of the category is made from its name. Four or five categories is plenty; a category with one article in it helps nobody.
Comments
When Let readers comment is on, every article ends with a comment form: Your name, E-mail (not published) and Your comment, and the button Post the comment. With Hold comments until approved on, the reader sees Thank you — your comment will appear once we have read it.
Comments in the panel has four views: Waiting, Published, Spam and All. Each comment shows the article it was left on, and these buttons:
- Publish makes it visible under the article.
- Spam marks it as spam and hides it.
- The cross deletes it for good, after you confirm.
- Reply: type into Reply publicly… and press Reply. Your answer is published under the comment as the centre's reply.
When comments are waiting, the dashboard shows a Comments waiting card.
What visitors see
- The blog lives at
/blogon your website. It lists the published articles, newest first, with their picture, category and summary. Visitors can pick a category, or type into Search the articles and press Search. - An article has its own address under
/blog/, made from the headline. It shows the headline, the date, the author (if you show it), how many people have read it, the article itself, a like button, and share buttons for Facebook, WhatsApp, X, LinkedIn and Telegram, plus Copy the link. Below it are the published comments, each with its own like button and your reply. - The home page can carry a Latest articles band. Add it under Website → Home Page and choose How many articles and how many Columns (2, 3 or 4). It ends with an All articles button.
To put the blog in your website menu, add it under Website → Menus. The address /blog can be renamed under Website → Permalinks & Redirects. See The website.
Settings
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Posts per page | How many articles one page of the blog lists. 9 by default. |
| Let readers comment | Shows the comment form under every article. |
| Hold comments until approved | Leave this on. An unmoderated comment box on a medical site fills with spam. |
| Show who wrote each post | Prints the author's name on the article. |
A first month of articles
- Write down the ten questions your front desk answers most often.
- Write one article a week, each answering one question, in plain words and in the language your patients read.
- Give each a picture and a one-line summary, and fill in the meta description.
- Add the Latest articles band to the home page.
- When a patient asks one of those questions on the phone or on WhatsApp, send them the link.
Tips
- Articles are a good answer to share from AI Live Chat and in Notifications & Marketing campaigns.
- Keep medical claims careful. Write what a patient should do and when they should come in, not a diagnosis.
- Use Publish on to prepare several articles in one sitting and let them appear one per week.