Static sites don’t have to feel manual. With a lightweight content model, you can publish like a newsroom: write in markdown, preview quickly, ship static pages, and keep SEO assets (sitemap, RSS, internal linking) consistent.
This briefing describes a practical automation setup that stays lightweight: no WordPress plugin pile, no fragile admin panels, and no expensive hosting requirements.
Start with a content model that matches URLs
Your site structure should be easy to explain:
/posts/<slug>for article detail/category/<category>for category archives with pagination/tag/<tag>for tag archives with pagination
Minimum fields that scale
| Field | Why it matters | SEO impact |
|---|---|---|
title | headline + social sharing | affects click-through |
description | meta description + previews | improves snippets |
category | archive pages + navigation | internal linking |
tags | related discovery + long-tail | topical authority |
date | freshness signals + sorting | recency + trust |
cover (optional) | post previews + share cards | richer SERP previews |
One rule: keep slugs human-readable
Avoid UUIDs. Your slugs are marketing: readable, memorable, and stable.
Editorial flow: markdown first
There are three common approaches:
- Git-native: editors write
.mddirectly in a repo (fastest, most transparent). - Git-based CMS: a UI commits markdown into your repo (friendly for non-devs).
- Document pipeline: Notion/Google Docs export -> markdown transform -> commit.
The best workflow is the one your editors actually use every week.
A pragmatic publishing pipeline
- Draft in markdown (or export to markdown).
- Open a PR for review (titles, tags, links, compliance).
- Merge to
maintriggers a build (CI). - Deploy the static output (CDN).
Example: simple content checklist (PR template)
- Headings are meaningful (
##sections match search intent) - Tags are specific and consistent (
ai,localization,workflow) - At least one table or structured block for scanability
- Internal links to category/tag archives
Distribution: RSS + sitemap from the same source
A big WordPress advantage is distribution. You can match it in a static build pipeline by generating:
- Sitemap: every page URL for search engines
- RSS: feed readers, aggregators, email tools
- Structured data: basic schema to describe the site and posts
Don’t duplicate the truth
If the RSS and sitemap are generated from the same content collection as your pages, you avoid out-of-sync bugs.
Example: RSS item fields (pseudo-structure)
{
title: post.title,
link: `/posts/${post.slug}`,
description: post.description,
pubDate: post.date,
category: post.category,
tags: post.tags,
}Automation patterns that feel WordPress-mature
Scheduled publishing
Static sites can still publish on a schedule:
- keep a
datefield in frontmatter - build daily (or hourly) via CI
- filter future-dated posts until the date arrives
Content QA gates
Add guardrails to prevent bad posts from shipping:
- validate frontmatter types (title/tags/date)
- enforce minimum length
- check for broken internal links
A lightweight policy table
| Rule | Why | How to enforce |
|---|---|---|
| min word count | thin content ranks poorly | build-time script |
| tags not empty | improves discovery | schema validation |
| category required | keeps archives clean | schema validation |
Closing: keep it boring, keep it shippable
The point of automation is not clever tooling. It’s consistency: every post has metadata, every archive page is generated, and every build produces the same predictable structure. When your content stack is boring, your editorial output can be ambitious.