Managing Merged Pages
Merging several submissions onto one page lets you group similar submissions together (ex., several reviews of Anguilla Great House).
Merging also gives you some freedom that you don't have with regular C2 submissions. You can have them appear in any order you want on that page. You can also write the title and description for the page, and choose its keywords.
Of course, with that freedom comes a bit more work, like writing a compelling title and description, and determining the best order on the page.
Page Information
- Enter the Page Title of This Merged Page.
- Enter Keywords for This Merged Page.
- Enter a Description for This Merged Page.
Similar to block-built pages, you can enter a title, keywords and description into text boxes for the merged page. C2 will then use them to build the head section of the merged page.
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Title
The title of the new merged page should reflect what all the submissions on this page are about (ex., Reviews of Anguilla Great House). As with other pages, the title will appear as the link in Search Engine results pages, so make it compelling.
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Keywords
For single submission pages, C2 takes the title of the submission and makes it the first keyword. With a merged page, you have the opportunity to choose the keywords. This means that you can do a little more to have the page rank for particular keywords, rather than looking for long tail traffic.
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Description
For single submission pages, C2 takes the first 150 characters of the content and makes that the description. With a merged page, you can write your own description, which may then appear as the snippet in Search Engine results. This is your opportunity to convince surfers to visit this page, so make the description as compelling as possible, while keeping it under 150 characters (100 is better).
Submissions
- Click on the submission name to preview the submission.
- Click on edit to edit the submission.
- Click on delete to delete the submission from the database.
- If there is a comments link, click on it to edit comments for that submission.
- Click on demerge to revert this submission to a separate page.
- Click and drag submissions to change the order on the merged page.
- Click on Add New Submissions? to add other submissions to the merged page.
The Submissions section lets you manage the individual submissions that make up the merged page.
- Not sure about the content of one of the submissions? Click on its title to preview it. If you then decide that the submission doesn't fit with the others on the merged page, you can demerge it (see below).
- If, after previewing, you want to edit the submission, click on the edit link. The merged page will then be rebuilt with the changes to the submission.
- To delete a submission, click on the delete link. Note that this does not delete the merged page, only the submission. The merged page is then rebuilt, without the deleted submission.
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If there is a comments link, there are comments for that submission. A flashing icon means there are new comments. Click on the link to edit the comments for that submission.
Important Note: Comments always appear on a separate page when you merge submissions, even if you set preferences to display the comments on the submission page.
- Click on the demerge button if you want to remove one of the submissions from the merged page. This will rebuild the submission as a separate page, with all the original page information. It will also rebuild the merged page, minus the demerged submission.
You can reorder your submissions on the page by clicking and dragging them to the order you want. For example...
Click anywhere in the gray section for each submission. Do not click on any of the links, as doing so will perform the applicable action.
You can also add additional submissions either before building the merged page, or any time after. Click on the Add Another Submission? button, which will take you to a new page where you can select from the remaining unmerged submissions. Click on the Add Checked Submissions button to return to the Merge Submissions tool page to (re)build the merged page. Remember to click on the Build Merged Page button to finalize the addition.
RSS, Preview and Build
- Decide whether to Update Your RSS/Blog It! feed with the new merged page.
- Click on Preview to view the page. Make changes to the merge order until satisfied.
- Click on Build Merged Page to merge the submissions and create a new page.
- Click on Cancel to cancel the merge process.
Merging submissions removes each individual submission from your RSS feed and your Blog It! page (if they are currently showing -- older submissions may have been dropped from the feed and blog).
Clicking on Yes adds this new merged page to your RSS feed and to your Blog It! page.
Be sure to preview the page before building it to ensure that all the submissions display properly. Looking at the final page may reveal a better submission order, or a better title or description for the page.
When ready, build the page. After 20-30 minutes, you should see the new merged page in the list of submissions on the invitation page. And the previously individual submissions (but now on the merged page) will disappear from that list.
If you decide not to merge the submissions, click on the Cancel button, which will return you to the "Manage Existing Submissions" page for that invitation.