Using JSON to Organize Blog Data: Streamline Your Content Workflow
JSON looks simple, but it can completely reshape your publishing workflow. Done right, it transforms a messy blog into a structured system—easier to maintain, faster to build, and far more consistent in SEO and accessibility.
Why JSON Belongs in Your Blog Workflow
Most static site developers start with Markdown and YAML front matter. It works fine at first—small projects, single author, a handful of posts. But scale up to a serious blog with multiple categories, dozens of contributors, and strict SEO requirements, and cracks appear quickly. Suddenly, you’re duplicating author bios, repeating tags, forgetting alt text, and breaking internal consistency. That’s when JSON starts to matter.
JSON is more than an API format—it’s a universal data language.
It sits neatly in your _data directories, flows naturally into templates,
and integrates with validation tools to enforce discipline.
Instead of treating content as scattered fragments, JSON lets you centralize
cross-cutting concerns: authors, defaults, categories, related links,
and even your site’s brand palette.
In practice, JSON makes your site boringly predictable. And boring is a compliment. It means fewer bugs, fewer surprises, and a workflow that’s easy to scale. Readers never see JSON, but they notice the results—fast pages, consistent metadata, and navigation that feels deliberate instead of random.
Local Front Matter vs. Global JSON
The first question is always: what belongs in front matter and what belongs in JSON? My rule is simple: if the data is unique to one post, keep it in front matter. If it needs to be shared or reused across posts, move it to JSON. A post title or description is local. An author bio, brand color, or related-post mapping is global.
This separation matters because it removes duplication.
Instead of copying the same author snippet into dozens of Markdown files,
store it once in authors.json and reference it everywhere.
Instead of manually enforcing image sizes, store defaults in site.json.
That way, one change propagates across your entire site instantly.
The benefit isn’t just developer convenience. Centralizing in JSON enforces consistency at the system level. That consistency is a subtle but critical EEAT signal: Google rewards sites that look professional, reliable, and error-free. JSON helps you get there by removing the human factor from metadata.
// _data/authors.json
[
{
"id": "mason-goulding",
"name": "Mason Goulding",
"bio": "Founder at Maelstrom Web Services. Static-first, performance-obsessed.",
"avatar": "/assets/images/webp/people/mason.webp"
}
]
The Power of the Data Cascade
Frameworks like Eleventy make JSON a first-class citizen.
Drop a file into _data, and it’s globally available.
Use dir.json inside a folder, and its defaults cascade into every post.
This is more than a convenience: it’s a system-level guarantee
that certain fields will never be forgotten.
I’ve seen projects where 30% of posts had missing alt text, 20% had outdated author bios, and a handful had missing canonical URLs. That chaos doesn’t happen when JSON is in charge. Instead, you validate once, cascade everywhere, and let automation handle the rest.
The cascade model is also a performance win. Smaller front matter files mean leaner Markdown parsing. JSON is cached aggressively in memory during builds, making repeated lookups cheap. That translates into faster builds and fewer runtime errors.
// blog/development/dir.json
{
"layout": "layouts/default.njk",
"category": "development",
"metaRobots": "index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large"
}
Modeling Metadata for Automation
The strength of JSON is in its field-level discipline. Once you define your fields—title, slug, description, hero, tags—you can automate everything else. Cards render consistently. Schema generates without drift. Related posts are curated intentionally, not by chance.
Go beyond the basics. Store alt text with images.
Store readingTime and wordCount so you can display
them without recalculation. Store dateModified so freshness signals
are consistent across the site. Every field you add reduces friction down the line.
This is where JSON shines compared to YAML. YAML is fine for small configs, but it’s too loose for strict metadata. JSON forces quotes, enforces commas, and makes validation easy. That strictness may feel annoying at first, but it pays dividends when your build pipeline depends on it.
// relatedMap.json
{
"/blog/seo/meta-tags-that-actually-convert/": [
"/blog/seo/internal-linking-best-practices/",
"/blog/seo/how-to-build-topical-authority-fast/"
]
}
Validation: How JSON Keeps You Honest
JSON without validation is dangerous. You’ll end up with missing slugs, empty titles, or broken descriptions. With JSON Schema, you can enforce rules: every post must have a title, slug, description, and alt text. Dates must be ISO 8601. Tags must be arrays. Failures should break the build, not slip silently into production.
I treat validation as a non-negotiable. If the build passes, I know metadata is clean. If it fails, I fix it before deploying. That rigor is an EEAT signal in itself—sites that stay consistent, structured, and trustworthy are rewarded in the long run.
// blogPost.schema.json
{
"$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
"title": "BlogPost",
"type": "object",
"required": ["title", "slug", "description", "image", "date"],
"properties": {
"title": { "type": "string", "minLength": 4 },
"slug": { "type": "string", "pattern": "^/[a-z0-9-/]+/$" },
"altText": { "type": "string", "minLength": 6 }
}
}
Automation Powered by JSON
Once you trust your JSON, automation is inevitable. Generate RSS feeds, sitemaps, and search indexes automatically. Build related posts into every article without guessing. Surface author bios and avatars without duplication. JSON is the quiet force that makes your blog look intentional.
The hidden advantage is performance. JSON-driven systems build faster because templates can rely on predictable inputs. No runtime guesswork, no patchy conditionals. Everything is enforced upstream, so output HTML is clean.
// generate-search-index.11ty.js
module.exports = posts => posts.map(p => ({
title: p.title,
url: p.slug,
excerpt: p.excerpt,
tags: p.tags
}));
Governance, Localization, and Security
JSON works perfectly with Git. Every change is versioned, every diff is reviewable, and rollbacks are trivial. That alone turns content management from chaos into accountability. Teams can track who changed what, when, and why.
JSON also simplifies internationalization.
Store translations in i18n.json, keyed by locale,
and swap strings at build time.
Instead of juggling multiple copies of a page,
you centralize your language data in a single file.
Security is another factor. JSON files should never hold secrets—those belong in environment variables. But JSON does help enforce safe defaults: CSP rules, robots directives, caching headers. Store them in JSON, inject them globally, and reduce mistakes.
Where JSON Stops
JSON isn’t a silver bullet. It’s not for prose—that’s still Markdown. It’s not for assets—that’s what storage systems handle. And it’s not a replacement for a headless CMS when non-technical editors need a GUI. JSON is a tool for developers to enforce consistency, not a publishing interface.
Used correctly, JSON elevates your static site into a system. Misused, it’s just another layer of friction. The art is knowing where to stop.
The Bottom Line
JSON is not glamorous, but it’s foundational. It turns a blog from a patchwork of front matter into a structured system. It enforces metadata discipline, powers automation, and signals trustworthiness to both readers and search engines. In short, it’s how you scale without losing control.
At Maelstrom Web Services, I use JSON in every serious build. Not because it’s trendy, but because it saves time, prevents errors, and keeps clients competitive. If you want a static site that’s structured, fast, and ready for long-term growth, let’s talk.
