# Blogs and AI content

Write, design and publish a client blog from one builder, served on the client's own subdomain, on their site, or embedded.

Blogs opens as a single builder for the active client. An icon rail on the left switches between five areas, the panel next to it holds the settings for the area you picked, and a live preview of the blog fills the rest of the screen. An Embed button and a Publish button sit in the top bar, and an Unsaved badge appears next to them while you have changes that have not been saved yet.

| Area | What you do there |
| --- | --- |
| Content | Posts, Topics and Authors: write and organise the articles. |
| Design | How posts look: layout, card style, what shows on a card, colours. |
| Results | Traffic and engagement for the blog and for each post. |
| Setup | How the blog is presented: the six settings sections, the blog template, and the header and footer. |
| Domain | Where the blog is served and how it gets into search. |

> **Choose the client first**: The builder always edits the blog of the client selected at the top of the app. Switch clients and the posts, design and blog address all change with it.

## Writing an article

Content, then Posts, lists every article for the client. Two buttons sit above the list: AI Generate writes a draft for you, and Add Post opens an empty editor.

1. **Open AI Generate**: Enter the keyword to write about, choose a length (800, 1,200, 1,500, 2,000 or 2,500 words), choose a style (informative, persuasive, listicle, how-to or comparison), and add any extra keywords to work in. The generator reads the client profile and the AI Training knowledge base for facts and tone.
2. **Review the draft**: You get a title, a structured body, a meta description, an address slug and a featured image, opened in the editor.
3. **Edit**: The rich editor handles headings, links, images, embeds and formatting. You can upload a different featured image or generate a new one.
4. **Add the FAQs**: The editor has an FAQ list of question and answer pairs. These are published as FAQ structured data so the questions can appear directly in search results.
5. **Watch the SEO score**: The score card updates as you type and lists exactly which checks pass.
6. **Publish or schedule**: Turn Published on to go live now, or set a publication date in the future to hold it back.

| Field in the editor | What it is for |
| --- | --- |
| Title | The article headline and the page title in search results. |
| Slug | The last part of the article address. |
| Target keyword | The phrase the article is written to rank for, and the phrase the SEO checks look for. |
| Meta description | The summary shown in search results, with a live character count up to 160. |
| Content | The article body, written in the rich editor. |
| Featured image | The image shown on the post card and at the top of the article. Upload one or generate it. |
| FAQs | Question and answer pairs published as FAQ structured data. |
| Schedule publication | A future date and time. The article stays unpublished until then. |
| Publish date | The date shown on the article itself. |

## The SEO score

The score is a checklist rather than a judgement: it counts how many of the checks below pass and shows that as a percentage. When it is under 100 percent there is a button that rewrites the weak parts for you, then you review the result as usual.

| Check | What passes it |
| --- | --- |
| Title length | Title of 60 characters or fewer. |
| Meta description length | Between 50 and 160 characters. |
| Keyword in title | The target keyword appears in the title. |
| Keyword in description | The target keyword appears in the meta description. |
| Keyword in content | The target keyword appears in the body. |
| Word count | At least 300 words. |
| Headings | At least three subheadings, which also gives the article a table of contents. |
| FAQ section | At least one question and answer pair. |

> **Always review before publishing**: AI drafts are strong starting points. Check facts, prices, service areas and claims against the client's own material.

## Design

Design controls how the posts are presented, with the preview updating as you change each setting. A Match your website button reads the client's site and applies its colours and fonts in one step.

| Setting | Options |
| --- | --- |
| Layout style | Grid, List, Masonry or Featured. |
| Grid columns | One, two or three columns, for the grid and featured layouts. |
| Card style | Classic, Minimal, Overlay, Horizontal or Magazine. |
| Corner radius | Sharp, Rounded or Pill. |
| Post elements | Show or hide the featured image, excerpt, date, author, read time and category badge. |
| Colours | Text, accent and card text colours, plus colours per topic. |

## Setup sections

| Section | What it controls |
| --- | --- |
| General | The internal name for this blog, and whether an article opens as a full page or in a window over the list. |
| Homepage | The blog index: its title, whether the title shows, and the description under it. |
| Breadcrumbs | The label used for the blog, and whether breadcrumbs show on the index and on articles. |
| Article Page | The back button wording, and whether the table of contents sits on the left, on the right, or is hidden. |
| Related Inventory | Show matching products from Inventory alongside articles, with a heading, how many to show (up to 24), and whether they appear after the article or before the contact card. |
| Contact Card | The card at the end of an article: heading, business name, address, phone, website, and whether the button calls the business or opens their website. Blank fields fall back to the client record. |

## The blog template

Below the settings sections, the blog template picker sets the overall look of the blog when it is served on its own address. Each option has a preview link you can open before committing.

| Template | Look |
| --- | --- |
| Magazine | A featured lead story with an image-led grid and topic chips. |
| Minimal | A clean centred reading column with plenty of whitespace. |
| Corporate | A coloured banner, a structured card grid and a multi-column footer. |

## Header and footer

The last card in Setup fills the blog header and footer from the client's existing website so the blog matches their brand. Press Read website and the fields fill in; press it again later after a redesign. A badge tells you whether the values came from the website or from the client record.

- Business name, website address, logo image and brand colour.
- Phone and address.
- Up to six menu links for the header.
- Up to twelve footer links, each assigned to a Company or Support column.
- Opening hours, up to seven rows, with a shortcut that fills in weekday hours and a closed weekend.
- Fields you edit by hand are kept the next time the website is read again.

## Blog address

The Domain area decides where visitors and search engines find the blog. There are three choices.

**Subdomain (recommended)**

Add the DNS records and the blog, the index and every article, is served on the client's own subdomain, fully rendered and indexable. Nothing on the client's website has to change, and the traffic still counts on their domain. This is the right default for most clients.

**Client's own site path**

Posts live under the client's website itself, at a folder such as /blog. This works when the site answers at that path, usually via the SEO script or an existing CMS blog.

**Platform address**

Posts stay on the platform address. The quickest way to get a blog live, and useful for previews or trials, with the traffic on the platform domain rather than the client domain.

## Setting up the subdomain

1. **Choose the subdomain**: The field is pre-filled with blog. in front of the client's website domain, for example blog.acmeroofing.com. Change it if the client prefers something else, then press Set up.
2. **Copy the DNS records**: The card lists the records to add, each with a copy button: one CNAME that points the subdomain at us, one text record that proves the domain is yours, and one or more text records used to issue the certificate. Add them at whoever manages the client's domain.
3. **Watch the setup steps**: A short checklist shows progress as the hostname is registered and the certificate is issued.
4. **Check status**: Press Check status to re-test. The badge next to the subdomain reads Pending DNS until the records resolve, then Live.

> **DNS takes time, not effort**: Records usually resolve within minutes but can take a few hours. Nothing else is needed while you wait, press Check status again later and the blog goes live on its own.

## Getting the blog into search

The Domain area also handles search setup for the blog: the sitemap, ownership in Search Console, and submitting new and updated articles for indexing. It runs on its own once the subdomain is live, and the Publish button re-runs it on demand, which is useful after a batch of posts or a DNS change.

## Results

Results reports how the blog performs: visits and engagement over time, and a table of articles so you can see which posts bring traffic and which need work. Sitemaps, robots rules and structured data are generated and kept current in the background.

## Publishing on a schedule

A single article can be held for a future date in the editor. To keep a steady cadence without writing each brief, Client settings has a Blog Generation Schedule for the client: Every day, Odd days, Even days, Business days (weekdays, excluding US holidays) or Once a week. Articles produced on that schedule are written from the client's AI Training context and go live on their own, so review them after publication as part of your normal check on the blog.

A practical cadence for a small local client is 2-4 articles per month: one pillar-supporting piece from the topical map, one seasonal or news-driven piece, and one or two informational posts that answer a specific customer question. Larger, multi-location clients can sustain a daily schedule with staff reviewing the new posts each morning.

## Sharing and embedding

The Embed button in the top bar gives you three things to copy.

- Embed code, a snippet to paste into an existing page when the blog should appear inside the client's own site.
- Blog page URL, the public address of the blog, ready to copy into a menu or a report.
- API endpoint, the address the blog reads its posts from, for a developer wiring the content in themselves.

## Common problems

**The subdomain still says Pending DNS**

The records have not resolved yet. Re-check that the type, name and value were copied exactly at the domain provider, a trailing dot or an added domain suffix on the name is the usual mistake, then press Check status again. Some providers take a few hours to publish changes.

**The blog loads but the branding is wrong**

Open the header and footer card in Setup and press Read website again. If the site was recently redesigned, the old values were captured from the previous version. Fields you edited by hand are kept, so correct those manually.

**Articles are live but not appearing in search**

Confirm the blog address shows Live rather than Pending DNS, then give indexing time. Newly served subdomains are crawled within days, not hours. Press Publish in the Domain area to re-run search setup, and submit the blog in Indexing under Offsite SEO.

**The scheduled article did not go live**

A future publication date holds the article as a draft until it is published. Open the article and turn Published on once the date has passed.

**The SEO score is stuck lower than expected**

Look at which check is failing rather than the overall number. A missing FAQ pair and fewer than three subheadings are the two most common gaps.

**The draft repeats facts that are wrong or outdated**

The generator works from the AI Training knowledge base. Update the source material there, then generate again rather than hand-editing every future draft.

**Changes in the builder are not showing on the live blog**

Look for the Unsaved badge in the top bar. Save the change first, then reload the blog address.