How and why you should schedule your news articles

Why would you need to schedule posts?

Not everyone finds writing easy or even very fun! Sometimes you need to be in the right mindset or simply to just have the time to sit down and start writing without distractions. One of the main problems is finding that time and focus consistently, especially during peak seasons.

 
By being able to write all of the articles you have planned out in one go you can remove the need for finding a weekly or monthly time for writing. It is also helpful if you have a busy period with your attraction or events coming up or if you are taking some time off on holiday. With our CMS you can write all of your planned news article or blog posts in one go and set a date and time in the future for them to go live!
 
Another reason why it might be useful to schedule posts is to capture your audience at the right time. If you are led by Google Analytics data and know visitors view your News page regularly around a certain time, it can be nice to have a fresh, new article pop up just before they sit down to read! Plus, if you have a new event or interesting promotion happening, you can schedule a news story to appear just before the launch. Maybe tickets are going live on Friday at 2pm for a special event. Schedule a new story to appear just before then to help drive traffic or guide people in how to book.

Wait, can you backdate them as well?

So far we have looked at why you might want to schedule posts for the future. You can also backdate them as well.
 
The use-case is slightly different for this. The general purpose of news or blog post is to tell people interesting news or to promote events. Needing to put up a post weeks or months in the past might seem counter-intuitive. However, sometimes you have been away and forgot to schedule posts and being able to backdate them can help fix the problem.
 
With our CMS you can schedule posts into the future and you can also set a post's date in the past. You can also edit an existing post and change the publish date to reflect that it features newer content.

How do you schedule posts in the Website Vision CMS?

Scheduling news and blog posts is incredibly easy in our CMS. All you need to do whilst writing an article is to click on the 'News Date' and the 'Publish Date'.

The 'News Date' is what shows on the front-end of the website to everyone not logged in. This can give a date for when the article went live or when it was written. Even though you are scheduling a post, you can still leave the 'News Date' as the date it was written, if you want. However, for consistency, it is better to match it to the 'Publish Date'.
 
The 'Publish Date' is the one that controls the scheduling of the post. You can set it to a specific date and time in the future when you want it to show on your website. Then, when the time comes, the post will display live on your website for the rest of the world to enjoy.
 
You can schedule multiple posts for the future. So, if you find a good time to sit and write loads of interesting news articles you can schedule them all for the future and sit back and relax!

Any final tips for writing great news or blog posts?

Firstly, it is important to have posts coming onto your website consistently and repeatedly. Both people and Google love to see new content and to feel like your attraction is booming. If you can aim to write a news article at least once per month it will help boost traffic and to keep everyone informed.
 
Your News or Blog page doesn't only have to be filled with stories about upcoming events. It can also be used to expand upon your event or attraction’s social media. Articles about people or places within the business can help connect with your audience and put across what a fun place it is to visit. Any human-interest stories always help build great relationships with customers.
 
Finally, what if you do not have a News or Blog page and think you should get one? In that case, get in touch with us today and find out more about how we can help you grow and develop your business with a great website and CMS platform.