This essay is the operator's manual for the rest of the journal. It walks through how to take the 20 articles in this issue, upload them to a WordPress site, attach their images, set the SEO metadata, and completely replace the old content on mettablog.com/ — without losing what you want to keep. Read it once, then keep it open while you work.
Step 1 — Back up before you change anything
Before deleting a single old post, take a full backup: files and database. Most hosts (including Hostinger) offer a one-click backup in hPanel. Export your existing content too, via Tools → Export → “All content.” This gives you an XML file you can restore from if anything goes wrong. A migration you can undo is a migration you can do confidently.
Step 2 — Clean the old house
Decide what stays and what goes. To fully replace existing content, the cleanest path is to move old posts to Trash in bulk (Posts → select all → Bulk Actions → Move to Trash), then empty the trash. Keep any evergreen posts you want by leaving them published. Removing old content that competes with the new topics prevents keyword cannibalization and keeps the site focused.
- Bulk-select old posts and move to Trash, then empty Trash to remove them permanently.
- Delete unused tags and categories under Posts → Categories/Tags.
- Keep one or two high-traffic old posts only if they do not overlap the new topics.
Step 3 — Set up categories and tags first
Create the categories that match this journal before importing posts: SEO, Analytics, Email, Paid Media, Content, Strategy, CRO, Automation, Social, Influencer, Video, Affiliate, Audio, WordPress. Assign each article one primary category. Tags can be added per post from the keywords list. Doing this first means imports land in the right place automatically.
Step 4 — Upload the images
Each article ships with one hero image. Download the image files, then go to Media → Add New and upload them all at once (you can drag in a batch). WordPress keeps the original filenames, so rename files to something descriptive before uploading — for example “seo-ai-answers.png” — because descriptive filenames are a small but real SEO signal.
- Rename image files to descriptive, keyword-rich slugs before uploading.
- Compress images to under 200KB where possible (use a plugin like Smush or ShortPixel).
- Upload all images in one batch via Media → Add New.
Step 5 — Create each post and paste the content
For each article: Posts → Add New. Paste the title. In the block editor, paste the body text — headings will need to be set to the “Heading” block (use H2 for section titles). Add the hero image as the “Featured image” (right sidebar → Featured image → set it). This is the most reliable method for 20 posts and gives you full control over formatting.
For 20 posts, manual entry is faster than fighting an importer — and you control every heading, image, and link.
Step 6 — Set the SEO metadata on every post
Install an SEO plugin if you have not already — Yoast SEO or Rank Math are both free and sufficient. On each post, fill the meta title and meta description (each article’s excerpt works as the description), and set the focus keyphrase from the keywords list. Set a clean URL slug that matches the article slug (for example /seo-in-the-age-of-ai-answers). This is where the “SEO-rich” part actually happens.
- Meta title: the article title + ” — Metta Blog”.
- Meta description: the article excerpt (keep under 155 characters).
- Focus keyphrase: the first phrase in each article’s keywords list.
- URL slug: match the article slug exactly for clean, keyword-rich URLs.
Step 7 — (Optional) Bulk import instead of manual entry
If you prefer not to paste 20 posts by hand, you can build a WordPress XML import file or use a CSV importer plugin (such as WP All Import). Map the title, content, category, slug, and featured image columns. This is faster at scale but requires careful field mapping — test on one post first, then import the rest. For 20 posts, manual entry is usually the lower-risk choice.
Step 8 — Set the homepage and navigation
To make the site look like this journal: create a static homepage (Settings → Reading → “A static page”) and either build it with the block editor or use your theme’s blog listing. Add the categories to your menu under Appearance → Menus so visitors can browse by discipline. Set the site title to “Metta Blog” and the tagline to “The Digital Marketing Journal” under Settings → General.
Step 9 — Redirect the old URLs
If old posts had links or search rankings, set up 301 redirects from the old URLs to the closest new article (a redirect plugin like Redirection makes this point-and-click). This preserves any SEO equity the old pages had and prevents visitors and Google from hitting 404s. Submit an updated XML sitemap to Google Search Console once the new posts are live.
Step 10 — Final checklist before you launch
- All 20 posts published with featured images and SEO metadata.
- Old content removed or redirected; no 404s on previously indexed URLs.
- Categories and menu set; homepage shows the latest essays.
- Sitemap regenerated and submitted to Google Search Console.
- Site title, tagline, and permalink structure set to “Post name.”
Work through these ten steps in order and mettablog.com/ becomes a focused, SEO-rich digital marketing journal — twenty articles, properly structured, with the old content fully replaced and the new content positioned to rank. Take it one post at a time, and you will be done in an afternoon.
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