What are Link Banners?
A Link Banner is a Verso component that lives at the top of a verso page displaying a content type having a given channel, appears just below the navigation and persists as you scroll. The purpose is to drive audiences to a link or a set of links relevant to that article.
What is a Curated List?
Link Banners can only be built with Curated Lists. This curated list will be the central location where all content in the link banner is controlled. Curated Lists/Link Banners can be placed in the taxonomy of any Article. Link Banners can also be replaced inside Related Content per article basis and created in Preset Templates.
What are the 2 style types of Link Banners?
Marquee: Used when there is a single link to direct users to. We use this often to direct users to series bundle pages or newsletters. This Link Banner variation solves the problem of needing to drive back to a single destination (like a landing page or newsletter sign-up page) for articles in a given series.
2. Link Style: This is used to offer users links to 3 - 4 more articles along a common theme. This Link Banner variation with multiple links solves the problem of needing to drive traffic to a set of articles/pages/recipes/galleries/newsletter sign-up pages associated with a given topic. The multi-link variation side scrolls on mobile.
For both variations, the data source is a Curated List populated with Article(s) or External Link(s) in Copilot. The Curated List itself can have a hed, dek, and image. It inherits the brand identity of the channel config.
Link Banner Creation:
Begin making your first Link Banner by selecting Create > Curated List
Choose your Curation Type from the dropdown menu (Marquee or Link List)
If "Marquee" is selected follow these steps
Populate a marquee style by completing the following
Hed: Will be visible to users as the name of the banner (hed is required, place a invisible character to publish, it will not appear on your live site)
Dek: Appends to the end of the hed and describes the banner. (This is your actual banner title that will appear live site)
Image: Optional, goes in site image.
Items: Use the asset finder to associate a single external link. Write a contextual hed that links out to the page being promoted.
OR
If "Link List" is selected, follow these steps:
To populate a link style link banner, complete the following:
Hed: Will be visible to users
Image: Optional
Items: Use the asset finder to associate 3-4 articles. Write contextual heds to determine what is shown in the banner.
Under taxonomy, add the channel(s) you want the link banner to appear on. Link Banners will only appear on articles that are published to these channels.
You can choose multiple channels or just one. Once completed, hit Publish.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Can I remove a link banner from one article that is associated to a channel that has a link banner?
No. You can override it, but you cannot remove a link banner from a single article if its channel is associated to the link banner.
Will link banners appear on the app feed, RSS, Apple News, Google News?
Not as a result of this work. This could happen in the future but would need to be prioritized separately.
Can I preview a link banner before publishing it?
There is no way to preview a link banner once it is associated to a channel. The two options to test your new link banner would be:
Create it in staging Copilot and test the full workflow
Create the link banner and publish it without a channel. Associate it to an article and preview.
What happens if a channel has two link banners associated with it?
We will display the first published of the two link banners. To get the more recent link banner to display remove the association to the channel from the unwanted link banner.