Your content’s organization and structure can determine how easy it is to create and update your site.
Example 1
posts/
2027/
07/
04/
index.md
pond.jpeg
07/
cabin.jpeg
index.md
Example 2
images/
cabin.jpeg
pond.jpeg
posts/
Hello from the pond.md
Tiny home.md
- There are many ways to organize text and images for a blog.
- Your strategy determines how quickly you can add new content and find old content.
Before diving in, consider…
Question 1: How will you uniquely identify each piece of writing?
Files with dates
posts/
2027-07-04.md
2027-07-07.md
2027-07-10.md
Files with titles
posts/
Cozy.md
Hello from the pond.md
Tiny home.md
- Each post or other thing you write will typically need a unique ID called a slug.
- The slug can appear in a page’s URL to signal to your audience what’s on that page.
- A slug can reflect a file’s name, metadata, body text, and position in the folder structure.
- You can use a mix of tactics: a file name that includes both date and title, say.
Question 2: Realistically, how frequently will you add content?
Deep structure
posts/
2027/
07/
04/
index.md
08/
13/
index.md
09/
01/
index.md
10/
29/
index.md
Flat structure
posts/
2027-07-04 Hello from the pond.md
2027-08-13 Tiny home.md
2027-09-01 Cozy.md
2027-10-29 Reading.md
- Flat folders are easier to navigate; deep structures keep many files organized.
- The structure should reflect your pace; the left structure here is overkill.
- You can have a blend, e.g. folders by year, file names with month and day.
- Some people post more than once a day — most don’t.
Question 3: Will your writing have accompanying images or other media?
Images together with text
posts/
2027/
07/
04/
Hello from the pond.md
pond.jpeg
07/
cabin.jpeg
Tiny home.md
10/
Cozy.md
interior.jpeg
Images and text separate
images/
cabin.jpeg
interior.jpeg
pond.jpeg
posts/
Cozy.md
Hello from the pond.md
Tiny home.md
- The left arrangement keeps each image in a folder with the text file that references it, so it’s clear what goes with what — but maybe a little harder to navigate.
- The arrangement on the right separates image and text files — a flatter structure appropriate if you only occasionally have images, or manage your images with an image library tool.
Read more: A model for thinking about turning your writing into a site
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