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Columns are the primary structural unit of NodeForgeCMS. Think of them as the top-level sections of your website — each column defines a named content area with its own URL path, and every article you publish is assigned to at least one column. Your column structure directly shapes your site navigation, URL scheme, and how visitors discover content. Getting columns right before you start publishing saves significant reorganization work later.

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Creating a New Column

1

Open Column Management

Log in to the admin panel and click Column Management in the left-hand sidebar. You will see a list of all existing columns with their names, URL keys, and article counts.
2

Start a new column

Click the + New Column button in the top-right corner. The column creation form opens.
3

Set the column name

Enter a human-readable Name for the column (e.g., Company News, Product Updates, Support Articles). This name appears in the admin interface and can be used as the navigation label on your public site.
4

Set the URL key

Enter a URL Key (also called urlkey) for the column. This becomes the path segment in your site’s URLs — for example, a URL key of company-news produces URLs like https://yoursite.com/company-news/article-title.URL key rules:
  • Lowercase letters only (a–z)
  • Numbers are allowed (0–9)
  • Hyphens are allowed as word separators (-)
  • No spaces, underscores, or special characters
  • Must be unique — no two columns can share the same URL key
  • Keep it short and descriptive (2–4 words)
5

Add SEO metadata (optional)

Expand the SEO Settings section and enter a Meta Title and Meta Description specific to this column. These are used on the column’s index page (the listing page that shows all articles in the column) and help search engines understand the section’s purpose.
6

Save the column

Click Create Column. The column is immediately available in the article editor’s Column dropdown.

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URL Key Rules and Best Practices

The URL key is permanent in the sense that changing it after articles have been indexed by search engines will break existing links and hurt your SEO rankings. Choose URL keys carefully before publishing content.
Good URL keyAvoid
company-newsCompany News (spaces)
product-updatesproduct_updates (underscores)
supportSupport! (special characters)
en-blogblog 2024 (space + number)
If you absolutely must rename a URL key after launch, set up a server-level redirect from the old path to the new one to preserve link equity.

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Assigning Articles to Columns

Every article must belong to a column. You assign the column when creating or editing an article:
  1. Open or create an article in Articles.
  2. Find the Column dropdown in the article settings panel.
  3. Select the target column from the list.
  4. Save the article.
An article can only be assigned to one column at a time. If you need an article to appear in multiple sections, consider duplicating it or using tags (if your theme supports them).

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Reordering Columns

The order of columns in Column Management controls the order they appear in your site’s navigation menu. To reorder:
  1. Go to Column Management.
  2. Click and drag the row handles (the grip icon on the left of each row) to rearrange columns.
  3. Release to drop the column in its new position.
The navigation order updates immediately — no save button required. Refresh your public site to see the change reflected in the menu.

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Per-Column SEO Settings

Each column has its own independent SEO metadata for its index/listing page:
  • Meta Title — the <title> tag for the column’s listing page.
  • Meta Description — the description shown in search engine result snippets.
To edit these:
  1. Click the Edit icon next to any column in the list.
  2. Scroll to the SEO Settings section.
  3. Update the title and description.
  4. Click Save Changes.
Good per-column SEO metadata helps search engines understand the scope of each section and can significantly improve organic traffic to your content categories.

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Deleting a Column

Deleting a column does not delete the articles assigned to it. Articles become unlinked — they still exist in the database and will appear in your article list, but they will no longer be accessible from the public site via that column’s URL. Before deleting a column, reassign its articles to another column or delete them individually if they are no longer needed.
To delete a column:
  1. Go to Column Management.
  2. Click the Delete (trash) icon on the column’s row.
  3. Confirm the deletion in the dialog box.
The column is removed and its URL path is freed up for reuse.

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Example: Corporate Site Structure

A typical corporate website built on NodeForgeCMS might use the following column structure:
Column NameURL KeyPurpose
About UsaboutCompany story, team, values
ProductsproductsProduct descriptions and specs
NewsnewsPress releases and announcements
BlogblogThought leadership and articles
SupportsupportFAQs, guides, troubleshooting
CareerscareersJob listings and culture content
This maps to clean public URLs like https://acmecorp.com/news/, https://acmecorp.com/blog/, and https://acmecorp.com/support/ — intuitive for visitors and well-structured for search engines.