How to add a blog to your website without WordPress

Most websites are finished before anyone asks for a blog. The design is set, the pages are built, and then somebody says the site needs fresh content to rank. The usual answers are a WordPress install on a subdomain, or a blog builder that looks nothing like the rest of the site.

There is a shorter way: keep your site, and fetch the posts into it.

What a blog actually needs

Strip a blog down and it is three things:

1. A place to write, with drafts, scheduling and images.
2. A list of posts, and one page per post, on your own domain.
3. Titles, descriptions and addresses that search engines can read.

Only the first one needs new software. Your site already knows how to render a page.

Write in a dashboard, read over HTTP

With a headless blog, the writing happens in a hosted dashboard and your site asks for the posts over HTTP. Your /blog page lists them; your /blog/[slug] page shows one. They inherit your header, your fonts and your footer, because they are your pages.

const { items } = await cms.posts.list({ limit: 10 })

That one call is the whole integration for a list page.

Why not a subdomain

A blog on blog.example.com is, to a search engine, a separate site that has to earn its own reputation. Posts on example.com/blog add to the domain you are already building. They also keep visitors inside your navigation, one click from your product.

What to do next

• Pick the two pages: a list and a post.
• Create a project and a read-only API key.
• Write one post you would want to find yourself, and publish it.

The first post is the hard part. The plumbing takes an afternoon.