Introduction
While looking for ways to improve my blog, I noticed Hashnode and DEV both support series creation. For those unaware, a blog series is a collection of posts with a single narrative thread. After observing this concept being shared across these two platforms, I had an epiphany about what I needed to do with my own blog. I decided I would implement my own version of a blog series feature ☝️🤓💡.
The Series Lightbulb Moment
One thing that played a part in coming up with this idea was the writing process for my previous post My 2025 Roadmap: Balancing Growth, Creativity, and Impact.
In that post, I mentioned my desire to complete Hashnode's Serial Blogger challenge. When thinking about how I could complete that challenge, I realized Hashnode and DEV both support series creation. While their implementations differ, the feature allows related content to be grouped together.
Naturally, I saw a connection between these things. By building out series support for my own blog, I could group together all the posts related to completing the challenge while also leveraging the series feature on other platforms. Furthermore, creating my own series implementation would provide content to write about and prepare me for the Serial Blogger challenge.
Current Content Structure
My current content structure is built around a stream of posts. Some posts refer back to other posts for small, tangential reasons. However, there is no mechanism for connecting posts together under a single narrative. While this has worked so far, I have been planning some new content which would benefit greatly from being organized under a series.
While I do not have the benefit of creating series right now, I am able to add tags to my posts. For anyone interested, I wrote about adding support for tags (back when I was running my site with Gatsby) in an article titled Updating Blog Tags: Simple Metadata Enhancements. Tags are useful for grouping related content together, and when I cross-post my content I'm able to leverage the same tags on other platforms. However, tagged posts may not be directly related to each other. In contrast, a series is a group of posts all directly related to each other.
Series Vision
By organizing content under different series, my hope is to make different articles more easily discovered. Additionally, I hope it will encourage visitors to return over time as new articles in the series are published. One technique I have considered trying in this area is creating a post schedule. If I can build up a backlog of articles, I can publish them on a regular basis. From what I understand, frequent content updates are one of the best ways to
attract attention and improve appearance in search results.
Furthermore, a series system presents an opportunity for moving towards intelligent content suggestion. For example, if a user is reading an article which is part of a series, I can display a recommendation for them to read the next article in a series. Once I have a simple component like that in place, I could modify it to recommend users to similar articles based on content. The recommendations could be generated automatically rather than me having to structure the articles into groups via tags or series.
Beyond My Blog
Extending series support beyond my site unlocks a more connected content ecosystem. Readers who follow my posts on DEV or Hashnode will experience the same logical content flow, regardless of the platform they choose. This consistency can foster stronger engagement and loyalty. Specifically, DEV and Hashnode both support series creation via their APIs. By creating a tighter integration with other platforms, my goal is to give my audience a seamless experience no matter how, and where, they choose to engage.
Leveraging the APIs from DEV and Hashnode, I plan to automate series creation and synchronization across platforms. For instance, when a new post is added to a series on my blog, it could automatically update the corresponding series on these external platforms. This automation not only saves time but also ensures consistency across my content ecosystem.
I’m just getting started with this cross-platform series integration. In upcoming posts, I’ll document my approach to automating this process and share any lessons learned along the way. If you’ve tackled a similar challenge or have insights on cross-platform content strategies, I’d love to hear from you!
Conclusion
Adding series support to my blog is more than just a technical upgrade—it’s a strategic move toward better content organization, discoverability, and engagement. By grouping related posts into cohesive series, I aim to create a more intuitive reading experience for visitors while laying the groundwork for advanced features like intelligent content recommendations. Additionally, this functionality will make it easier to maintain consistency across platforms like DEV
and Hashnode.
Looking ahead, I’m excited to experiment with scheduled series posts, test out content suggestions, and track how these changes impact reader engagement. If you’ve implemented a similar feature on your blog or have ideas for enhancing content organization, I’d love to hear your thoughts! Let’s learn and grow together as we build better blogging experiences. 💡✨
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