Purpose

A Basic Page is your most commonly used content page for creating a variety of informational pages.

When to Use a Basic Page

This page type is suitable for any content that doesn't require complex functionality or frequent updates.  It's ideal for content that remains relevant for long periods, such as:

  • About Us page
  • Contact Us page
  • Services offered
  • Team introductions
  • FAQs
  • Etc.

Elements of a Basic Page

  • Title: title of page, limited to 255 characters
  • Short title: optional, shorter version used in menus, breadcrumbs, etc. Limited to 35 characters.
  • Body: All content, load any media library or component library informational blocks.
    • The WYSIWYG editor allows embedding various microcontent types, providing flexibility in page creation.
  • Summary: used on search engines and social media shares. Limited to 160 characters
  • Featured Image: single image that captures or relates to the page topic. Used in teasers and social media shares. Limited to one.
  • Topic: Used to categorize content for filtering and search. Optional

When creating your page title it's important to choose a good title as well as keep in mind that a page title can be up to 80 characters because line breaks are currently not available to be created on page titles.

Note: For guidance on how to choose a good page title, please navigate to Iowa.gov Style Guide

Short video:

Longer video:

1

Log in to your site

Everyone who writes things on this website has a special title. These titles give them certain abilities, like who can edit, review and publish what. You can ask for a different title or take one away from someone using the user manager.

2

Navigate to the Content tab

You can add pages to your website by navigating to the content button but make sure you are logged in so that you can have access to that tab.

You can sort the pages that you've created using the filter button as well as edit the pages you've created for your website by selecting the edit button within the content list page:

(Example of Content list page)

admin content screen
3

Create a Basic Page content type

Create a new Basic Page by navigating to Content then to  Add Content and from there you can select the Basic Page.

When creating a basic page, make sure to add all required fields.

We recommend you click "save" often.

4

Editing, Publishing, Scheduling Content

Authors will have the ability to edit content based on different privileges.

Here is a table that demonstrates what each author type or content managers can do:

User Roles and Permissions
 WriterEditorPublisherAgency Manager
Create this contentXXXX
Edit own contentXXXX
Edit anyone's content XXX
Publish this content  XX
Unpublish this content  XX
Delete own content    
Delete anyone's content    
Schedule this content  XX
5

Confirm your knowledge

If you need visual guidance that shows the step-by-step process of creating things for your website make sure to go to our Video Training Page!