Channel Landing Pages in eeSiteKit
eeSiteKit’s Channel Landing Page system provides an optional content display layer between the home page and category pages within your website.
Home Page >> Landing Page >> Category Page >> Single Entry Page
Landing Pages are an option for any channel of your site. Channel Landing Pages work independently of each other; some channels may have them while others may not.
As an example, this site does not have a Landing Page for the “Products” Channel. When a Channel doesn’t have a Landing Page your top row navigation will switch to a hover-only behavior (instead of a hover and/or click). Also, the Channel Heading, the landing segment of breadcrumbs, and the channel name in the dynamic sitemap will not be a clickable link. When a Channel does have a Landing Page, the reverse behaviors are true.
The only Channel where a Landing Page is required is your “Home” Channel. For the “Home” Channel, the Landing Page is your site’s default home page.
Content for the Channel “Home” Landing Page is displayed in the template “kit_display/home”. For all other Landing Pages, content is displayed in the template “kit_display/landing”.
Creating a Channel Landing Page: To add a Landing Page to a Channel, create a new category called “landing” within the Category Group assigned to that Channel. Make sure that the “Category URL Title” is the word “landing” as that’s the variable that will correctly trigger eeSiteKit’s templates and navigation systems to correctly recognize the Landing Page.
Categories may be created and managed in the Category Management area of the control panel at the path below, or optionally (and in a much more accessible way for your website’s content publishers) by way of the “Edit Categories” link in the Categories tab within the Publish/Edit page as pictured below.
Site Name › Admin › Channel Administration › Category Groups
Categories Tab of the Publish/Edit page.
Once you’ve created your category called “landing,” we recommend you use the blue positioning arrows in the category creation windows to position your landing category at the top of your category list. This should help your content publishers associate the category name of “landing” with the landing page(s) of your site. In the website’s navigation, the name “landing” will be replaced with the appropriate Channel Name. The image below shows the landing category for this Channel you are viewing. Note how the category “landing” is substituted in this site’s navigation with “User Guide,” the name of this Channel.
By allowing Landing Page creation and deletion to be triggered by a Category URL Title of “landing”, you have the option of empowering your content publishers to have full control over Landing Page content and its dynamic navigation, and all within the Publish/Edit page of EE.
We’ve been using this Landing Page system at our firm now since late last year and our clients absolutely love it. We think yours will too.
In the rare occurrence that you actually need a category called “Landing” AND a Landing Page in the same Channel (example: the website is for a boat landing, or a flight school), use a slightly different Category URL Title for the category called “Landing”: “ramp-and-landing” or “landing-safely.”