Create and customize blog posts (2023)

Last updated: March 3, 2023

Once you've created a blog, you can create blog posts, either from scratch or imported from an external blog or Google Doc. You can customize blog content and settings and optimize blog posts for search engines.

Create blog posts

• In your HubSpot account, navigate to Marketing > Website > Blog.
• In the upper right, click Create, thenselectBlog post.
• In the dialog box, click theSelect a blogdropdown menu and select a blog, then clickCreate blog post.

• In the content editor, click theBlog contentmodule and add content to your post. You can edit the formatting of your blog content in the rich text toolbar.
• To write your blog post in a streamlined editing environment, click to toggle theDistraction Free Modeswitch on in the top right. You can turn this mode on or off at any time.

• To set the length of the post summary that displays on your blog listing page, you can insert a read more separator:
  • Click theBlog contentmodule.
  • In the rich text toolbar, click theInsertdropdown menu and selectRead more separator.
  • Click theMoreseparator and drag it to the desired position in the blog post.

• To add additional modules to the Blog content module:
  • Click the last expandicon on the left to open the sidebar editor.
  • In the sidebar editor, click theAddtab.
  • Click a module and drag it over theBlog Contentmodule, then drop it in place.
  • To edit a specific module within theBlog Content module, click theContentstab in the sidebar editor, then click themodule.

• To customize the post's settings, click the Settings tab at the top of the content editor, then edit the settings:
  • In theBlog titlefield, enter thenameof the blog post. This name will appear in an h1 tag at the top of the post, its tab in the visitor's browser, and in search results.
    • To separate the page's displayed title and h1 tag from the name of the page in the browser and search results, clickCustomize blog's page title.
    • In theBlog title field, enter thetitleof the post that will appear on the page in an h1 tag.
    • In thePage titlefield, enter the nameof the blog post that will appear in the browser title bar and search results.

• • To move the post to a different blog, click theBlogdropdown menu and select ablog. Once you publish this change, the URL of the post will automatically change to reflect its new destination. A redirect will be put in place from the post's previous URL.
  • To switch the post's language variation, click the Blog post languagedropdown menu and select alanguage. Learn more about creating blog posts in multiple languages.
  • In theBlog URL section, click theContent slugfield to automatically turn the post's title into a URL slug. To customize the URL, enter a new URL slug in theContent slugfield. Learn more about editing a blog post's URL.

• • To set an author for the post, click the Author dropdown menu and select an author. Learn more about managing blog authors.
  • To add an existing tag to the post, click theTagsdropdown menu and select thetag. To add a new tag, click theTagsdropdown menu, then type the tag into the field and click Add "[name of your new tag]" tag.Learn more about managing blog tags.
  • In theMeta descriptionfield, enter adescriptionof the post's content that will appear in search results below the post title.

• • To associate the post with a campaign in HubSpot, click the Campaigndropdown menu and select acampaign. To create a new campaign instead, selectAddnew. Learn more about working with campaigns in HubSpot.
  • To add a featured image that will be included when the post is shared on social media, click to toggle the Featured image switch on. Click Upload to select an image from your computer, or Browse images to select an image from the files tool.

• • To customize more advanced settings like the blog template, notification emails, and head HTML, click to expand the Advanced options section. Learn more about customizing advanced options.
• To attach a topic or subtopic keyword to your post and view SEO recommendations, click the Optimize tab. Learn more about optimizing content for search engines.
• Before you take your post live, you can preview it by clicking Preview in the top right. Learn more about previewing blog posts.
• Once you’ve customized your post's content and settings, click the Publishing options tab, then set your publishing options:
  • To publish the post now, select the Publish now option.
  • To publish your post in the future, select the Schedule for later option. In the fields that appear, select a date and time to publish your post.
  • To customize what the post will look like in social posts, clickPreviewin theSocial auto-publishingsection. Learn more about sharing blog posts on social accounts.
  • To generate an Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) version of this blog post, select theEnable Google AMP just for this blog post checkbox. If Google AMP has been turned on in settings for the whole blog, this option will not appear. Learn more about managing Google AMP for your blog.

• When you’re ready to take the post live or schedule publishing, click Publish or Schedule in the top right.

Import blog content from Google Docs

You can import pre-written blog content into the content editor from a Google Doc in a connected Google account. Google Docs shared with you by other users cannot be used.

• In your HubSpot account, navigate to Marketing > Website > Blog.
• Hover over a post and click Edit, or create a new post.
• In the content editor, click theBlog content module.
• In the rich text toolbar, click the Advanceddropdown menu and select Import Google Doc.
• To select the Google Doc from the files in your Google Drive:
  • If your Google account does not appear, clickConnect a new account. In the dialog box, clickAccept and connect to Google. On the Google authorization page, select aGoogle account. then clickAllow. When you start the import process again, your account should be selectable.

• • In the Select the Google account you want to use for your import section, click the connected Google accountthat owns the Google Doc.

• • In the dialog box, select aGoogle Doc, then click Select.

• To import the Google Doc using a link:
  • In the dialog box, select theFrom link option.
  • In the Google Doclinkfield, paste theURLof your Google Doc. The URL must be formatted like docs.google.com/document/d/documentId/or drive.google.com/open?id=documentId.
  • ClickImport.

• In the content editor, finish editing the blog post.

Please note: blog content imported from Google Docs will preserve some of its original formatting. Learn more about importing formatting from Google Docs.

• In the top right, clickUpdateorPublishto take your changes live.

Optimize blog posts for search engines

On theOptimizetab of the content editor, you can view a post's SEO recommendationsor attach it to a topic.

• In your HubSpot account, navigate to Marketing > Website > Blog.

• Hover over a post and clickEdit.
• In the content editor, click the Optimizetab.
• If the post is attached to a topic or subtopic, they will appear in the sidebar editor. Learn how to attach content to a topic or subtopic.

• To view incomplete SEO recommendations, click acategorywith a red circle in the sidebar editor. Each completed recommendation will have a green checkmark. Each incomplete recommendation will have a grey checkmark. Learn more about SEO recommendations.

Customize advanced blog options

• In your HubSpot account, navigate to Marketing > Website > Blog.
• Hover over a post and clickEdit.
• In the content editor, click the Settings tab, then clickAdvanced options.
• To add code snippets to the head HTML of this post, click the Head HTMLfield, then enter yourcode snippet. To add code snippets to all posts on a blog, access your blog settings.
• To switch the template used for this blog, clickChange template used for this blogin theTemplatesection.

Please note: changing a blog's post template will change the template used for all posts on that blog. Unique templates cannot be applied to individual blog posts.

• TheNotification emailssection will display which blog subscription emails are currently turned on for this blog. To change the blog's subscription email settings, clickManage.
• To add a custom canonical URL, enter theURLin theCustomize canonical URLfield. Learn more about using canonical URLs.

Preview blog posts

Before publishing a post, you can preview it on different device types and test smart content and personalization.

• In your HubSpot account, navigate to Marketing > Website > Blog.
• Hover over a post and click Edit.
• In the content editor, clickPreviewin the top right.
• To access a full page preview, clickOpen in new windowin the top right. To share this preview page with other users in your HubSpot account, click Copy shareable link on the preview page. Users must be logged into HubSpot to view this preview.

• To preview the post on a different device, click a mobiledevice iconin the upper right of the preview page.

• If you have Google AMP turned on for this blog post, clickGoogle AMPat the top of the page to preview the AMP version of the post. To return to the regular view, clickStandard.
• To preview personalization or smart content, click thePreview asdropdown menu:
  • Select Contactto preview the post's personalization. Then click the second dropdown menuand select acontactto preview how the post would appear for that contact.
  • SelectSmart ruleto preview the post's smart content. Then click the second dropdown menuand selectone or moresmart rulesto preview how the post would appear for a visitor matching those rules.