Analytics are a useful source of information about how your blog is performing, who it is reaching, and how popular it is. Setting objectives for your blog based on web traffic analytics is an effective way of improving your site’s reach and uptake.
The University uses Google Analytics to provide web analytics on content within T4 Site Manager and CampusPress.
The Dashboard (wp-admin) is the first screen you see when you log into the administration area of your blog.
You can get to this dashboard by adding /wp-admin to the end of your site’s url (e.g.: example.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/wp-admin)
The main idea of the dashboard is to give you a place where you can get an at-a-glance overview of what’s happening with your blog.
The features available to you in the Dashboard will depend on your user role. View a summary of these differences in EduBlogs ‘User Role Overview’.
This article offers a comprehensive overview of all the features available on your dashboard. Please note that we do not have the My Class or Upgrade and +Pro Account functionality enabled for the Bristol Blogs network.
The Settings menu inside your blog dashboard is where you configure how your blog works.
When you set up a blog you have the ability to assign and control what other users can do in the blog depending on the tasks you want each user to be responsible for.
The five roles you can assign users on a blog are, in decreasing level of responsibility:
Administrators can give access to others to edit the site.
WordPress allows you to add content to your site using ‘posts’ and ‘pages’. A post is a timely piece of content (eg an article, opinion piece or news update) that appears in your blog feed. A page is a static piece of content (eg an ‘About’ page, or page listing people or contact details), that usually appears in your site’s navigation menu.
Administrator, editor, author and contributor roles can all create post/pages.
*Contributor roles will have to submit their draft for review to an editor or administrator. Find out more about the difference between User Roles.
As an administrator or editor, you are able to edit any post/pages published or submitted for review by other blog contributors.
As an author, you are able to edit your own posts/pages, but not those written by others.
To edit a post, navigate to Posts > All posts and click on the Edit link under the post title you want to edit.
To edit a page, navigate to Pages > All pages and click on the Edit link under the page title you want to edit.
The Edublogs guide to posts and pages contains a full overview of posts and pages, the differences between them, and more instructions on managing content using them.
As a Blog Editor you will benefit from creating new categories and tags for your blog so you can curate content that you and fellow blog contributors create.
Categories and tags are both used to help readers find posts and navigate through information on your blog site. Categories offer a broader overview of the topics you blog about, similar to the chapters of a book.
Tags, on the other hand, are similar to an index of a book: they are much more granular and divide a blog topic into as many smaller subtopics as necessary and relevant.
Learn more about the difference between categories and tags.
It is important to add as many categories and tags as you need to make your post easier to find.
Categories are normally displayed at the top or bottom of posts and in your sidebar if you are using the Category widget.
When your readers click on a category link, they are taken to a page that lists all posts assigned to that category.
There are a few different ways you can assign categories to your posts. Find out more about how to add new categories to your blog and how to manage your categories.
Tags are always displayed on your blog posts as a tag cloud in your sidebar. When your readers click on a tag name, they are taken to a page that lists all posts that use that tag. As a general rule, the larger the size of the word in the tag cloud, the more posts have been tagged with that name.
There are a few different ways you can add tags to your posts. Find out more about how to add and manage your tags.
Plugins are small applications that you can activate to enhance the functionality of your WordPress site.
This includes anything from adding content elements such as an events calendar, to adding tools which help you to improve the way your site functions, eg search engine optimisation.
CampusPress, the University’s WordPress service provider, manage an approved list of plugins on our behalf by keeping them up to date and ensuring each plugin meets a certain level of security, accessibility and usability.
You can find an available list of plugins via your dashboard navigation menu, under ‘Plugins’.
You can activate (or deactivate) any plugin in the list. Find out more about a particular plugin by following the plugin’s ‘Documentation’ link.
For some plugins (eg Jetpack) you will need to set up a separate (non-UoB) account via WordPress.com for them to work.
All media content, such as images, video, audio and documents, that you upload to post/pages will be listed in your media library.
You can manage all existing media files, or upload new ones, directly to your blog via the media library.
The maximum file size you can upload is 50MB.
Learn more about managing files in your media library, including:
You can upload and edit your images either from within posts or via the media library. Full instructions on editing your image settings can be found via the Edublogs support guides.
The maximum file size you can upload is 50MB. If you have videos larger than this and cannot make them any smaller, you can ask marketing-team@bristol.ac.uk about hosting videos on the central YouTube channel.
