WordPress Post Writing Guide

In this guide, we’ll explain the WordPress editor that you’ll be using on our site to create your own content. Here, we’ll cover the actual writing and formatting of your article, as well as your post’s finishing touches.

Formatting Your Post

When you open the text editor, you will see two blank fields: one for your article title, and one for your body of text.

There are multiple ways to interact with the text editor and numerous tools at the top of the editor space. On the top right of the editor, you can switch between “Visual” and “Text.” The visual editor is what you’ll mainly use when writing posts. The text editor does allow you to add custom HTML to your posts, but you shouldn’t need that unless adding something like a table.

The Title

Titles should be direct, concise, and utilize keywords such as game, console, or developer names. Aim for an attention-grabbing title that will entice readers to click on your article, but avoid creating click-bait titles that are non-factual.

It helps to think of what people might search for on Google if they want to find the kind of information you provide in your post. For example, a title such as “How to Get (X) in (Game Name)” is generally a good place to start for a game guide.

We do try to adhere to capitalization rules in our titles as well. Below, you will find a brief run-down of what you should be capitalizing in your article titles.

Capitalize:

Nouns
Adjectives
Verbs
Adverbs
Pronouns
Subordinating conjunctions
The first and last word in your title

Don’t Capitalize:

Articles – a, an, the
Coordinating conjunctions – and, but, or, for, nor
Prepositions – on, at, to, from, by

The Article Body

The body of your article is essentially the guts of your post. You’re going to want to write clean, grammatically correct articles that are formatted properly. Within the body of your article, there are a few features you will be using to format your post. These include text styles, headings, block quotes, lists, links, images, and videos. Let’s address these one by one so that you know what to use and where.

Text Styles

Within the first sentence of your post we ask that you use bold text on the subject of the article. If the article is about the PlayStation 5, we ask that you bold “PlayStation 5” in the first sentence. Simply highlight the text you want to bold, then click the “B” button at the top of the editor.

Sometimes, you will have multiple subjects you will want to bold. These include game titles, consoles, developers, game-specific items, etc. Only bold the first occurrence of each relevant subject in your post. This will make it easier for readers to locate the information they are looking for within your article.

We also ask that you italicize the names of games. To do this, highlight the text you want to italicize, then click the “I” button at the top of the editor. If the game’s name is used in the first sentence of your article, as will often be the case, you may bold and italicize the game’s name in this instance.

Using Headings

Headings are a hierarchical group of tags that give structure to the content of an article. You will not always need to use headings in your articles, but they can help to break up important sections of text you want to outline and make your content easier to read.

In the “Paragraph” drop down menu next to the bold button, you will find different headings options. The only options you will need to use are Heading 3 and Heading 4. Think of Heading 3 as a main heading and Heading 4 as a subheading.

Making Lists

If you want to add a list to your article, you can use the list functions in the post editor. There are two list functions: bulleted and numbered. Like headings, these list functions allow you to give structure to your content and make the text easier to read.

Creating Links

It’s important to provide links when necessary. You’ll want to make sure that links work before you add them in the editor. Adding a link is as simple as highlighting text and clicking the link icon at the top of the text editor. This will open a new window that allows you to paste or type a link, or, you can search our site for related articles that you might want to link back to.

Here’s a link to the home page, as an example. To make this hyperlink, we highlighted the words “home page,” clicked the “Insert/edit link” function, and typed the home page URL into the empty field.

When linking to other articles, you will also want to make sure that links open up in a new tab. To do this, click on the hyperlink you’ve created, then click the gear icon to the right of the link field. This will open up a window to “Insert/edit link,” where you can then follow the instructions in the image below.

Linking to other articles on TheGamerGrind.com is a valuable tool to keeping readers on our site. If you would like to link to articles outside of the site, first ask yourself if it is really necessary to do so. Sometimes, linking to developer articles can boost SEO (more about that later) but you should mainly consider keeping traffic here on our site.

If you have any questions about linking to an external source, ask the editor.

Adding Images

Images are an essential component of your articles. While most posts will generally only have one image in them, longer articles may have more. Let’s go through what we expect from you when uploading images to your posts.

Featured Image

Every article must have a featured image. This is what our site visitors will see on any page your article is on, so you will want to make sure the image is high quality.

To set the featured image, scroll down below the text editor to the “Featured Image” field and select “Set featured image.”

The featured image must be 1280 x 720 pixels and in jpg/jpeg format. If you aren’t sure about image sizes, you will need to familiarize yourself with this before you start writing for us. Using the wrong image sizes or wrong dimensions is not acceptable. You will always want to look for 16:9 images that are greater than or equal to 1280 x 720 px.

Fortunately, this is a very common aspect ratio. Whether you are using our media library or uploading an image you’ve captured or found elsewhere, you will need to double check to make sure it’s the right size.

All Other Images

Any images other than the featured image in your post must be 1280 px width. The height is not as important here as it is for the featured image. As long as it looks good and makes sense within your post, you may add other images.

Using Our Images

You can add an existing image from our library by clicking the “Add Media” button at the top of the post editor. This will open a window that has every image we’ve ever uploaded. Simply select the one you want, select your size and alignment, and it will be added into your post wherever your cursor is.

When uploading an image, you will be given the option to select the alignment and image size. Be sure to select “Full Size” and “Align None.” Once you set this the first time, you won’t have to do it again.

Furthermore, you should always add alt text to your images in the “Alt Text” field. Alt text can simply be a description of what the image is and what’s in it.

Uploading Your Own Images

You will often find that an article will call for using an image that we don’t have in our library. If this is the case, make sure you aren’t using an image that may be copyrighted. Generally, things like screenshots or other publisher made content are free to use on our site. If something is watermarked or looks like it was created explicitly for use on another website (like our own), please refrain from using it.

Images are safe to use if they:

Come originally from a game developer/publisher
Come from your own in-game screenshots
Are not protected by copyright

Images are not safe to use if they:

Violate copyright
Use someone else’s edits or art

When in doubt about whether or not an image is acceptable to use in your article, ask the editor.

Embedding YouTube Videos

You may embed YouTube videos within posts by copying and pasting links directly into your post. The video should automatically embed into your post rather than remain as a link when you use this method.

On YouTube, you simply need to click on the share option below the video to the right, which will open up a window that will allow you to copy the link to the video. Copy that link and then paste it into the editor and it should immediately show up, as long as it’s a public video.

As with photos, only use videos that do not violate copyright (i.e. clips from other content creators). Developer-released videos are acceptable, as are videos you created yourself.

You should also only add videos if they are relevant to your post and give weight to what you are writing about.

Beyond the Post Body: Adding Finishing Touches

Now that we’ve covered the basics, it’s time to discuss the finishing touches you will need to add to your article before sending it to publish on the site. This includes your post’s categorization, tags, excerpt, and SEO section.

Featured Image

As discussed in the “Adding Images” section of this guide, all articles will require a single 1280 x 720 px featured image, which should be uploaded to the “Featured image” section of the editor.

Excerpt

In the “Excerpt” field, write a short line of text that sums up what you cover in your article. This will be displayed alongside your post, wherever it is featured on the website.

Likes and Shares

Make sure the boxes to “Show likes” and “Show sharing buttons” in the right sidebar are checked.

Post Attributes

Beneath the “Likes and Shares” box is the “Post Attributes” box. Be sure that the template selected is “Default template.”

SEO Box

It’s important to note a couple of things about the SEO box below the post editor. This is not a magic recipe for great traffic or rankings, but more of a guideline to making good content that people will be able to easily find.

SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” Having good SEO practices is key to getting your content found on search engines and driving traffic to our site. Since you get paid based on the ad revenue your traffic generates, practicing good SEO is crucial when you create content. For now, let’s explain the functional aspects of this box.

The first thing you’ll see in this box is the “Focus keyphrase” field. If you’re just getting started with written content creation, you may not have thought about SEO. But this basically makes you think about what your keyphrase is in a post. Is it a game title? Is it a word, string of words, question, or something else?

It doesn’t really matter if you input a focus keyphrase, but this tool will show you if your actual keyphrase is being represented by the words in your post. Are you using a keyphrase too much? Are you using it too little? This will show you more details about your posts from an SEO perspective.

You will generally want to aim for a good SEO ranking when using the Yoast SEO box. However, don’t get too caught up in trying to get a perfect score. Rather, this tool is available so you can know where you’re doing well with your content and to see where you might need to improve.

Readability

Like the SEO tool in the Yoast SEO box, the “Readability” tab will show you how easy to read your post comes across. You will also want to aim for a good readability score, but again, don’t get too hung up on perfecting this. Instead, you can use it as a tool to see where you can improve on your writing. This can help you improve your SEO and make your articles more reader-friendly.

Editing Snippet

Below the Focus keyphrase in the SEO box, you will see your snippet preview or “Meta description.” This is basically a preview of what you’re submitting to search engines as the description of the page. By default, this will be an excerpt of the content, which is the first couple of sentences in most cases.

You can edit the snippet here if you think that you have a more eye catching description than the first words of your article. If you open your article strong, you shouldn’t need to do this, but this is just another optional tool to help you drive traffic to your posts. Just make sure that if you do use this feature, you use all of the available characters required by the meta description field.

Other SEO Resources

Another good resource for garnering traffic to your articles is Google Trends. You can find this at trends.google.com. Here, you can input different keywords to see what the world is searching on Google. This can help you to determine which articles are worth your time and which ones you can put on the back burner. Keywords that rank high on Google Trends are more likely to generate traffic. And again, the more traffic you generate, the more ad revenue you are likely to earn.

Saving Drafts and Previewing your Work

Our site has an autosave function that will save your content in real time. If you work on something that needs to be put off for later, it should be auto-saved in most situations. If you need to manually save a draft, you can click the “Save Draft” button at the top right of the screen in the “Publish” section of the sidebar.

More importantly, before you send off your work for an editor to review, it’s important that you proofread your own content as well. This can be done either in the editor or on the page itself. You can preview what your content will look like by hitting the “Preview” button at the top right of the “Publish” section. Here you can check for image formatting, links, video embeds, spelling errors, or anything else that isn’t quite right. While we’ll be looking at your work when you start out, once you are publishing on your own it’s important to check your work before hitting the “Publish” button.

When you click the “Publish” button at the bottom of the box, your work will be sent to an editor for approval before publication. Our goal is to get you publishing on your own, but that will just depend on how quickly you learn the information in this post and how error-free and accurate your content is when you submit it to an editor. Make sure your article is as clean as possible so we can get an accurate picture of whether we’ll be able to trust you to publish on your own.

As always, if you have any questions about any of this, please contact us on Discord. While we are often busy working on many other aspects of the site, we are here to help.