Site Navigation - Organization is Essential For Attracting & Keeping Subscribers
Tags, Tabs, & Table of Contents: An Easy Step by Step Guide
Have you ever landed on Part 2, or 3, or beyond in a series of posts and then had to practically resort to magic to find the other parts? It happens a lot and it’s frustrating.
As writers, we should never be the “author of confusion”. When someone reads a post or chapter in the middle of one of our series, they should immediately see prominent links to the entire series.
I like order. You could say I’m OCD about it. This trend has carried over into my writing here on Substack.
There are just a few writers (though there are undoubtedly many others I haven’t discovered yet) that I’ve noticed who make an effort to organize their writing for continuity. Most just write, as I did for a while.
tops the list. She gets it - organization and continuity make it easy to navigate and are essential in keeping readers interested.
She is not only a prolific master writer but also a meticulous organizer. She keeps a Start Here post prominently displayed at the top of each of her two newsletter sites, Talebones and The Wildroot Parables. There you will find everything you need to know organized and cross-referenced in several different ways: Bio, links to genres, series, complete archive, and her very popular Talestack News.
THE WAY I DO IT
I haven’t even come close to reaching that point yet. There is not a “one way fits all” method of organizing posts. If you write posts unrelated by subject, it may be that an Archive link in your navigation bar will do. And as your Substack grows, you can always update the way you organize your site.
When I first began Life UnCorked, I just wrote and published. The goal was to put out as many posts as possible on things I was interested in writing about.
Soon it became evident that several topics lent themselves to particular groups or series. So, the effort to organize began.
When I started The Talking Pen last December for the Creative Writing side of things, I followed the same process discussed below.
Adding Chapters or Series ArticlesThe Process
I will use the Personal Transformation Collection as an example for this article. Click on this link to get an idea of the finished product.
Steps to add linkable Chapters or Sections
In your Dashboard, click New Post>Post.
Add an image and the buttons you normally do when creating a post.
Below the top image:
Open a post you want to add to the TOC in another browser tab
Copy the URL
Paste it into the main content section of your new post.
At first, the display will be huge.
Example - Before Reducing size:
A Paddle, A Rudder, and a Sail Were In a Boat Together
Note: Here are the links to related articles in this series.
To change the size, hover the cursor over the display. A little box with lines will appear at the top right corner. Click on this box and choose Small Display.
Result:
Repeat this process for each chapter or article you want to add.
When done, you will have a nice Table of Contents, Series, or Collection with a linked Thumbnail photo and Title for each chapter or separate part (Click the Personal Transformation Collection above to see results).
I normally add a line at the end of the links informing readers that new links will be added as published.
Finish with a divider line and insert your normal end of posts buttons (Subscribe, Share, Leave Comment, Add app, etc.) and your Bio
Publish
Things to Keep in Mind
The Table of Contents (TOC) post must be published for readers to have access.
Tip: Always add the TOC link to the top of each new chapter/series post. That gives ready access to the whole kit-and-kabudle with every post.
Tip: Once you publish a new chapter or series article, you will need to edit the TOC and add it.
Tags, Tabs, and Navigation
For best organization, use tags.
Tags are very important for organization and navigation.
Tag every single post you write on the pre-publishing page before pressing the publish button.
Go to Settings>Branding>Publication Theme and click the Edit Theme button
When that opens, click the Homepage option
Under the Post Layout, choose the Groups (Sections or Tags) option.
Then begin adding tags. When a post is added with a matching tag, the section (group) will show up in the main body of your Substack site with the posts under that tag. As you tag your posts with the same tags, they will show up in the appropriate group. You can add posts to multiple groups if applicable.
Tags can be added as links in the Navigation bar (the most important thing )
Go to Settings>Website and Scroll to Navigation Bar links.
Click Add: Use one of your Tags as the link name on the Navigation Bar.
On your site, when you click on a tab in the Navigation bar, it will take you directly to the corresponding section/group tag you created/added in the body of your site.
Below the Navigation Bar section in Settings is the Custom Tags section. Here, create the same tags as you did in the branding instructions above. They should be automatically added to the Navigation Bar. You can Drag the links to reorder them if you want.
It is important to not “overdo it”.
Having too many tags can be confusing and tedious. Take some time to think about the categories for your writing and choose just a few that will categorize your posts most accurately.
Go to Life UnCorked and scroll down to see an example.
I am in the process of creating a “How To” TOC, so when that happens, I will add the link to this article to it. Then I will also update this article with a link to the whole series.
That’s it. Easy Peasy, right?
Try it out. Please let me know if this “How to” is easy to understand and please feel free to offer suggestions for improvements.
Thank you for subscribing to Life UnCorked where the focus is on successfully navigating the issues of life from a Christian point of view.
While you’re here, check out my creative writing ‘Stack: The Talking Pen, where you’ll find fiction & non-fiction stories, poetry, art, and personal musings that illustrate the struggles, tragedies, and triumphs of life.
What a valuable resource, Cork; this is awesome!! And thank you for the kind mention!
Thank you so much for sharing this! I'm still trying to navigate this platform and have been using tags and naming my series but this helps so much!