[WordPress table of contents] Easy-to-understand explanation of how to make a table of contents and the merits of the table of contents!

“What are the specific benefits of creating a table of contents in WordPress?”

“How do I put a table of contents in WordPress?”

A WordPress table of contents that allows readers to understand the content “at a glance” .

Especially for long articles, having a table of contents allows readers to skip to the part they want to read, which has a very positive effect on user satisfaction and search engine optimization (SEO) .

However, some WordPress beginners may not know how to create a table of contents.

In this article, I will explain the benefits of putting a table of contents in WordPress and three ways to create a table of contents.

Benefits of inserting a table of contents into WordPress

I’m sure there are some people who don’t really understand the specific benefits of inserting a table of contents into WordPress .

There are four main advantages to inserting a table of contents.

1. You can immediately understand what is written on the page
2. You can move to the place you want to read
3. May appear in search results
4. Actually clicked by the reader

You can immediately understand what is written on the page

Unlike paper media such as magazines and books, articles on the Web are not read by many users.

Most people who search the internet think ” I want to know what information I’m looking for right away! “, So it’s better to be able to understand “what is written” in the article at a glance.

Google’s search engine is trying to raise the top of the search for pages that are highly satisfying to users.

Articles that can be understood instantly tend to be judged to be “good quality” rather than articles that you cannot tell what is written without scrolling down .

Of course, adding a table of contents does not dramatically improve your search ranking.

However, there is no doubt that it will be a plus for SEO, and it will also improve usability, so try to insert a table of contents as much as possible.

You can move to the place you want to read

If there is a table of contents, users can click (tap) the table of contents to quickly move to the place they want to read .

Users do not want to read all of the articles.

Especially on long pages that exceed 10,000 characters, it is extremely difficult to find out where the information you want to read is.

If the text is too long, many users will leave in the middle .

The biggest merit of putting a table of contents is that you can quickly provide the information that users want by putting a table of contents in WordPress and adding a function that allows you to move to the place you want to read .

May appear in search results

The table of contents may also appear in the search results .

Have you ever seen a headline under the title when you searched for a particular keyword on Google?

(* Example: When searching with “How to raise the search ranking”)

If the table of contents is displayed in the search results, the exposed space will simply be larger and more noticeable , which has the advantage of increasing the click through rate (CTR) of the page.

Of course, this is a function that is displayed only on pages that have a table of contents, so it will not be displayed on pages that do not have a table of contents.

Actually clicked by the reader

In fact, the WordPress table of contents is firmly clicked by the reader .

You can see how the table of contents is being used by looking at the “heatmap tool” that lets you know where the user clicked.

Even if you look at this, it can be said that the table of contents is indispensable for the reader .

How to create a table of contents in WordPress

Let’s actually create a table of contents in WordPress.

There are three methods to introduce this time.

1. Take advantage of the table of contents insertion plugin
2. Create manually
3. Use standard features

Take advantage of the table of contents insertion plugin

A popular method is to use a plugin to insert a table of contents .

Among them, the plug-in used by more people is ” Table Of Contents Plus “.

It can be reflected in all existing articles as well as new articles.

It judges the headline structure such as h2 and h3 and automatically displays it in the article.

First, search for “Table Of Contents Plus” from the WordPress plugin search screen.

Press Install Now.

If you can install it, enable it.

Please note that it cannot be used unless it is activated.

Once enabled, set the table of contents to be created automatically.

Go to Settings → TOC +.

The setting screen will be displayed, so let’s set it as above.

Be sure to click “Update Settings” at the end to complete.

Now, when you create an article, the table of contents will be generated automatically.

There are different preferences for the “scroll to anchor link instead of jumping” section, but scrolling instead of jumping has the advantage of making it easier for the reader to know where the information is.

Create manually

To manually insert a table of contents without using a plugin, you need to know “HTML”.

However, there is also the advantage that you can exclude unnecessary items yourself by creating it without relying on plugins.

If you want to create a table of contents manually, follow the steps below.

1. Create a table of contents with a text editor
2. Name each heading with “id =” 〇〇 “”
3. Insert a link in each table of contents

First, create a table of contents with a text editor.

This time, I created a table of contents for three headings.

Next, add each heading using the h2 tag.

Let’s set a link to this heading.

To set up a link, first add an “id” to each h2 heading and give it a name.

After giving it a name, it’s time to insert the link in the table of contents.

To insert a link, enclose the characters in the “li tag” with “a tag” and add “#” to each id name given to “href”.

After that, you can enclose the table of contents with a box or change the design with CSS to make a beautiful headline.

Use standard features

Depending on the theme, even if you do not use a plugin , the table of contents function is often provided by default from the beginning.

For example, “Cocoon,” which is one of the most popular free themes, has a “table of contents display function” from the beginning.

Select “Cocoon Settings” from the menu on the management screen, and then select the “Table of Contents” item.

If you scroll down, the table of contents settings will appear, so here

1. Whether to display the table of contents
2. Which page displays the table of contents

Can be decided.

By the way, when the table of contents is displayed, it is displayed as follows by default.

It simply displays the hierarchy separately for h2 and h3, so even the default settings work well as a table of contents.

It’s convenient because you can arrange the design so far just by entering the theme.

There are many other themes that have a table of contents display function, so please check them out.