feat(blog): add the blog index, post pages, RSS and content sitemap

The rendering split is dictated by CI building with no database.

/blog, /blog/rss.xml and /content-sitemap.xml have no dynamic params, so
Next prerenders them at build time and the build fails on a missing
Payload secret — caught here, not on staging. They are force-dynamic
instead: one indexed query against Postgres on the same Docker network,
and a newly published post appears immediately rather than waiting on a
revalidation. /blog/[slug] keeps ISR, because with no
generateStaticParams there is nothing to prerender; it is generated on
first request and cached, which is exactly what the collection's
afterChange hook exists to invalidate.

RichText takes `converters`, not `blocks`, in Payload 3.88, and the
default converters must be spread or every paragraph and heading loses
its renderer and the body comes out empty.

BlogPosting references the Person and Organization by @id rather than
repeating them, so every post and the About page resolve to one author
entity instead of declaring several people with the same name.

/sitemap.xml is proxied from FastAPI, which knows nothing about Payload,
so the Next-owned URLs get their own sitemap and robots.txt lists both.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_017YmbBhr8s7GusjDE12hrZM
This commit is contained in:
TudorandClaude Opus 5 committed 2026-09-02 16:28:58 +01:00
1 parent 21a5d18f59
commit b793640507
15 files changed
+705 -14

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+39
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@@ -2583,3 +2583,42 @@ test('the about page names a human author and is reachable from the footer', asy
// First name only — a surname here would be the one place it leaks.
expect(jsonLd).not.toMatch(/familyName/);
});
test('the blog lists posts and each one renders with a byline', async ({ page }) => {
await page.goto('/blog');
await expect(page.getByRole('heading', { level: 1 })).toBeVisible();
const postLinks = page.locator('a[href^="/blog/"]');
// Data invariant: staging must carry at least one published post. If this
// fails, the environment has no content rather than the code being broken.
expect(await postLinks.count()).toBeGreaterThan(0);
await postLinks.first().click();
await page.waitForURL(/\/blog\/.+/);
await expect(page.getByRole('heading', { level: 1 })).toBeVisible();
await expect(page.getByText(/^By Tudor/)).toBeVisible();
const jsonLd = await page
.locator('script[type="application/ld+json"]')
.first()
.textContent();
expect(jsonLd).toContain('"BlogPosting"');
});
test('the admin panel is not indexable', async ({ page }) => {
const response = await page.request.get('/admin');
expect(response.headers()['x-robots-tag']).toContain('noindex');
});
test('the content sitemap lists the about page and is advertised in robots', async ({ page }) => {
const sitemap = await page.request.get('/content-sitemap.xml');
expect(sitemap.ok()).toBeTruthy();
expect(await sitemap.text()).toContain('/about');
// The school corpus sitemap is proxied from FastAPI; this one is Next's.
// robots.txt must advertise both or the blog never gets discovered.
const robots = await page.request.get('/robots.txt');
const body = await robots.text();
expect(body).toContain('/sitemap.xml');
expect(body).toContain('/content-sitemap.xml');
});
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
/**
* The blog index imports getCachedPayload, which pulls in Payload — ESM-only,
* and next/jest will not transform node_modules. Mocking that one module keeps
* the page's metadata testable without loading the CMS; the mock is never
* called, because `metadata` is a static export evaluated at import time.
*/
jest.mock('@/lib/payload', () => ({ getCachedPayload: jest.fn() }));
import { metadata } from '@/app/(frontend)/blog/page';
import { blogPostingJsonLd, breadcrumbJsonLd } from '@/lib/jsonld';
const post = {
title: 'What the data cannot tell you',
slug: 'what-the-data-cannot-tell-you',
excerpt: 'Results describe one year group on a handful of days.',
publishedAt: '2026-09-15T00:00:00.000Z',
};
describe('/blog metadata', () => {
it('canonicalises to the bare path', () => {
expect(metadata.alternates?.canonical)
.toBe('https://www.schoolcompare.co.uk/blog');
});
});
describe('BlogPosting structured data', () => {
it('names the same Person entity the about page declares', () => {
// By @id, not by repeating the person: search engines must resolve every
// post and the about page to one author entity, or the site has several.
const ld = blogPostingJsonLd(post);
expect(ld['@type']).toBe('BlogPosting');
expect(ld.author['@id']).toBe('https://www.schoolcompare.co.uk/about#tudor');
expect(ld.publisher['@id']).toBe('https://www.schoolcompare.co.uk#organization');
});
it('carries a self-referencing canonical url and the publish date', () => {
const ld = blogPostingJsonLd(post);
expect(ld.url).toBe(
'https://www.schoolcompare.co.uk/blog/what-the-data-cannot-tell-you',
);
expect(ld.datePublished).toBe('2026-09-15T00:00:00.000Z');
});
});
describe('breadcrumbs', () => {
it('places the post under the blog index', () => {
const ld = breadcrumbJsonLd(post);
expect(ld.itemListElement[0].item).toBe('https://www.schoolcompare.co.uk/blog');
expect(ld.itemListElement[1].item).toBe(
'https://www.schoolcompare.co.uk/blog/what-the-data-cannot-tell-you',
);
});
});
+9
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@@ -9,3 +9,12 @@ describe('robots.txt', () => {
);
});
});
describe('sitemap discovery', () => {
it('lists both the proxied school sitemap and the Next-owned content sitemap', () => {
expect(robots().sitemap).toEqual([
'https://www.schoolcompare.co.uk/sitemap.xml',
'https://www.schoolcompare.co.uk/content-sitemap.xml',
]);
});
});
@@ -33,13 +33,13 @@ describe('posts collection', () => {
expect(POSTS).toMatch(/access:\s*\{\s*read:\s*\(\)\s*=>\s*true/);
});
it('revalidates the blog paths when a post changes or is deleted', () => {
// Blog pages are ISR because CI builds with no database. Without these
// hooks a published post would not appear until the revalidate window
// expired — up to an hour of a writer thinking publishing is broken.
it('revalidates the post page when a post changes or is deleted', () => {
// /blog/[slug] is ISR — generated on first request and cached — so an edit
// to an already-published post would otherwise not appear until the
// revalidate window expired, up to an hour of a writer concluding that
// saving is broken. The index and feeds are force-dynamic and need no hook.
expect(POSTS).toContain('afterChange');
expect(POSTS).toContain('afterDelete');
expect(POSTS).toMatch(/revalidatePath\('\/blog'\)/);
expect(POSTS).toMatch(/revalidatePath\(`\/blog\/\$\{[^}]+\}`\)/);
});
});
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
.page {
max-width: 42rem;
margin: 0 auto;
padding: 2.5rem 1.25rem 4rem;
}
.header { margin-bottom: 2.5rem; }
.kicker {
font-family: var(--font-ui);
font-size: 0.75rem;
font-weight: 600;
text-transform: uppercase;
letter-spacing: 0.06em;
color: var(--brand);
margin: 0 0 0.35rem;
}
.heading {
font-family: var(--font-display);
font-size: clamp(1.5rem, 4vw, 2rem);
font-weight: 700;
line-height: 1.2;
color: var(--text-primary);
margin: 0 0 0.75rem;
}
.standfirst {
font-family: var(--font-ui);
font-size: 1.05rem;
line-height: 1.65;
color: var(--text-secondary);
margin: 0;
}
.list { list-style: none; padding: 0; margin: 0; }
.item {
padding: 1.5rem 0;
border-top: 1px solid var(--border);
}
.date {
font-family: var(--font-ui);
font-size: 0.8rem;
color: var(--text-muted);
/* Inter's tabular numerals keep a column of dates aligned. */
font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums;
}
.itemTitle {
font-family: var(--font-display);
font-size: 1.25rem;
font-weight: 600;
line-height: 1.3;
margin: 0.35rem 0 0.5rem;
}
.itemLink { color: var(--text-primary); text-decoration: none; }
.itemLink:hover { color: var(--brand); }
.excerpt {
font-family: var(--font-ui);
font-size: 0.95rem;
line-height: 1.65;
color: var(--text-secondary);
margin: 0;
}
.empty {
font-family: var(--font-ui);
color: var(--text-muted);
}
.link { color: var(--brand); font-weight: 600; }
.link:hover { color: var(--brand-strong); }
@@ -0,0 +1,87 @@
.page {
max-width: 42rem;
margin: 0 auto;
padding: 2.5rem 1.25rem 4rem;
}
.crumb {
font-family: var(--font-ui);
font-size: 0.85rem;
margin-bottom: 1.25rem;
}
.heading {
font-family: var(--font-display);
font-size: clamp(1.6rem, 5vw, 2.25rem);
font-weight: 700;
line-height: 1.2;
color: var(--text-primary);
margin: 0 0 0.75rem;
}
.byline {
font-family: var(--font-ui);
font-size: 0.9rem;
color: var(--text-muted);
margin: 0 0 2rem;
}
.hero {
width: 100%;
height: auto;
border-radius: 10px;
border: 1px solid var(--border);
margin-bottom: 2rem;
}
/* Rich-text output: the editor emits plain elements, so these are styled by
descendant selector rather than by class. */
.prose p {
font-family: var(--font-ui);
font-size: 1rem;
line-height: 1.7;
color: var(--text-secondary);
margin: 0 0 1.1rem;
}
.prose h2 {
font-family: var(--font-display);
font-size: 1.25rem;
font-weight: 600;
color: var(--text-primary);
margin: 2.25rem 0 0.75rem;
}
.prose h3 {
font-family: var(--font-display);
font-size: 1.05rem;
font-weight: 600;
color: var(--text-primary);
margin: 1.75rem 0 0.6rem;
}
.prose ul,
.prose ol {
font-family: var(--font-ui);
font-size: 1rem;
line-height: 1.7;
color: var(--text-secondary);
padding-left: 1.35rem;
margin: 0 0 1.1rem;
}
.prose li { margin-bottom: 0.4rem; }
.prose a { color: var(--brand); font-weight: 500; }
.prose a:hover { color: var(--brand-strong); }
.prose blockquote {
border-left: 3px solid var(--border-strong);
padding-left: 1rem;
margin: 1.5rem 0;
color: var(--text-muted);
font-style: italic;
}
.link { color: var(--brand); font-weight: 600; }
.link:hover { color: var(--brand-strong); }
@@ -0,0 +1,164 @@
import type { Metadata } from 'next';
import Link from 'next/link';
import { notFound } from 'next/navigation';
import { RichText } from '@payloadcms/richtext-lexical/react';
import type { JSXConvertersFunction } from '@payloadcms/richtext-lexical/react';
import { getCachedPayload } from '@/lib/payload';
import { absoluteUrl } from '@/lib/site';
import {
blogPostingJsonLd,
breadcrumbJsonLd,
personJsonLd,
organizationJsonLd,
} from '@/lib/jsonld';
import { CalloutBlock } from '@/components/blog/CalloutBlock';
import styles from './Post.module.css';
/*
* ISR. Unlike the index, this route has a dynamic param and no
* generateStaticParams, so there is nothing for the build to prerender: each
* post is generated on first request and cached until the collection's
* afterChange hook revalidates it. That hook is what makes an edit to an
* already-published post appear immediately.
*/
export const revalidate = 3600;
interface HeroImage {
url?: string | null;
alt?: string | null;
width?: number | null;
height?: number | null;
}
/**
* Spreads the default converters and adds the one custom block.
*
* Without the spread, every default node type — paragraphs, headings, links —
* loses its renderer and the post body comes out empty.
*/
const calloutConverters: JSXConvertersFunction = ({ defaultConverters }) => ({
...defaultConverters,
blocks: {
// Annotated because the generic block converter cannot infer a custom
// block's field shape; String() guards the values regardless.
callout: ({ node }: { node: { fields: Record<string, unknown> } }) => (
<CalloutBlock
tone={String(node.fields.tone ?? 'caveat')}
body={String(node.fields.body ?? '')}
/>
),
},
});
async function findPost(slug: string) {
const payload = await getCachedPayload();
const { docs } = await payload.find({
collection: 'posts',
where: { slug: { equals: slug }, _status: { equals: 'published' } },
limit: 1,
depth: 1,
});
return docs[0] ?? null;
}
function summarise(post: Record<string, unknown>) {
return {
title: String(post.title),
slug: String(post.slug),
excerpt: String(post.excerpt),
publishedAt: String(post.publishedAt),
};
}
export async function generateMetadata(
{ params }: { params: Promise<{ slug: string }> },
): Promise<Metadata> {
const { slug } = await params;
const post = await findPost(slug);
if (!post) return { title: 'Not found' };
const hero = post.heroImage as HeroImage | null | undefined;
return {
title: String(post.title),
description: String(post.excerpt),
alternates: { canonical: absoluteUrl(`/blog/${post.slug}`) },
openGraph: {
type: 'article',
title: String(post.title),
description: String(post.excerpt),
url: absoluteUrl(`/blog/${post.slug}`),
publishedTime: String(post.publishedAt),
// A post with a hero image shares that; one without falls through to the
// generated share card at app/opengraph-image.tsx.
...(hero?.url ? { images: [{ url: hero.url }] } : {}),
},
};
}
export default async function PostPage(
{ params }: { params: Promise<{ slug: string }> },
) {
const { slug } = await params;
const post = await findPost(slug);
if (!post) notFound();
const summary = summarise(post as Record<string, unknown>);
const hero = post.heroImage as HeroImage | null | undefined;
const jsonLd = {
'@context': 'https://schema.org',
'@graph': [
blogPostingJsonLd(summary),
breadcrumbJsonLd(summary),
personJsonLd(),
organizationJsonLd(),
],
};
return (
<article className={styles.page}>
<script
type="application/ld+json"
dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: JSON.stringify(jsonLd) }}
/>
<nav className={styles.crumb}>
<Link href="/blog" className={styles.link}>Blog</Link>
</nav>
<h1 className={styles.heading}>{summary.title}</h1>
<p className={styles.byline}>
By <Link href="/about" className={styles.link}>Tudor</Link>
{' · '}
<time dateTime={summary.publishedAt}>
{new Date(summary.publishedAt).toLocaleDateString('en-GB', {
day: 'numeric',
month: 'long',
year: 'numeric',
})}
</time>
</p>
{/*
A plain <img>, not next/image: Payload already generated the sized
derivatives on upload (Media's imageSizes), so routing it through the
optimizer would resize an image that is already the right size.
*/}
{hero?.url && (
<img
className={styles.hero}
src={hero.url}
alt={hero.alt ?? ''}
width={hero.width ?? undefined}
height={hero.height ?? undefined}
/>
)}
<div className={styles.prose}>
<RichText data={post.content as never} converters={calloutConverters} />
</div>
</article>
);
}
+76
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@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
import type { Metadata } from 'next';
import Link from 'next/link';
import { getCachedPayload } from '@/lib/payload';
import { absoluteUrl } from '@/lib/site';
import styles from './Blog.module.css';
/*
* Dynamic, not ISR.
*
* This route has no dynamic params, so Next prerenders it at build time — and
* CI builds the image with no database reachable, which fails the build. It is
* a single indexed query against Postgres on the same Docker network, so
* rendering per request is cheap, and it means a newly published post appears
* here immediately rather than waiting on a revalidation.
*/
export const dynamic = 'force-dynamic';
export const metadata: Metadata = {
title: 'Blog',
description:
'Notes on what school performance data shows, and what it does not.',
alternates: { canonical: absoluteUrl('/blog') },
};
function formatDate(value: string) {
return new Date(value).toLocaleDateString('en-GB', {
day: 'numeric',
month: 'long',
year: 'numeric',
});
}
export default async function BlogIndexPage() {
const payload = await getCachedPayload();
const { docs } = await payload.find({
collection: 'posts',
where: { _status: { equals: 'published' } },
sort: '-publishedAt',
limit: 50,
depth: 0,
});
return (
<div className={styles.page}>
<header className={styles.header}>
<p className={styles.kicker}>Blog</p>
<h1 className={styles.heading}>Notes on the numbers</h1>
<p className={styles.standfirst}>
What school performance data shows, what it doesn&apos;t, and how to
read it without being misled. Written by{' '}
<Link href="/about" className={styles.link}>Tudor</Link>.
</p>
</header>
{docs.length === 0 ? (
<p className={styles.empty}>No posts yet.</p>
) : (
<ul className={styles.list}>
{docs.map((post) => (
<li key={post.id} className={styles.item}>
<time className={styles.date} dateTime={String(post.publishedAt)}>
{formatDate(String(post.publishedAt))}
</time>
<h2 className={styles.itemTitle}>
<Link href={`/blog/${post.slug}`} className={styles.itemLink}>
{post.title}
</Link>
</h2>
<p className={styles.excerpt}>{post.excerpt}</p>
</li>
))}
</ul>
)}
</div>
);
}
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
import { getCachedPayload } from '@/lib/payload';
import { absoluteUrl } from '@/lib/site';
/*
* Dynamic, not ISR.
*
* This route has no dynamic params, so Next prerenders it at build time — and
* CI builds the image with no database reachable, which fails the build. It is
* a single indexed query against Postgres on the same Docker network, so
* rendering per request is cheap, and it means a newly published post appears
* here immediately rather than waiting on a revalidation.
*/
export const dynamic = 'force-dynamic';
function escapeXml(value: string): string {
return value.replace(/[<>&'"]/g, (char) =>
({ '<': '&lt;', '>': '&gt;', '&': '&amp;', "'": '&apos;', '"': '&quot;' }[char]!));
}
export async function GET() {
const payload = await getCachedPayload();
const { docs } = await payload.find({
collection: 'posts',
where: { _status: { equals: 'published' } },
sort: '-publishedAt',
limit: 50,
depth: 0,
});
const items = docs.map((post) => `
<item>
<title>${escapeXml(String(post.title))}</title>
<link>${absoluteUrl(`/blog/${post.slug}`)}</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">${absoluteUrl(`/blog/${post.slug}`)}</guid>
<description>${escapeXml(String(post.excerpt))}</description>
<pubDate>${new Date(String(post.publishedAt)).toUTCString()}</pubDate>
</item>`).join('');
const xml = `<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>schoolcompare blog</title>
<link>${absoluteUrl('/blog')}</link>
<description>What school performance data shows, and what it does not.</description>
<language>en-GB</language>${items}
</channel>
</rss>`;
return new Response(xml, {
headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/rss+xml; charset=utf-8' },
});
}
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
/*
* A second sitemap for the URLs Next owns.
*
* /sitemap.xml is proxied from FastAPI (app/(frontend)/sitemap.xml), which
* knows nothing about Payload — the backend and frontend ship as separate
* images. Rather than teach it, the Next-owned URLs get their own sitemap and
* robots.txt lists both.
*/
import { getCachedPayload } from '@/lib/payload';
import { absoluteUrl } from '@/lib/site';
/*
* Dynamic, not ISR.
*
* This route has no dynamic params, so Next prerenders it at build time — and
* CI builds the image with no database reachable, which fails the build. It is
* a single indexed query against Postgres on the same Docker network, so
* rendering per request is cheap, and it means a newly published post appears
* here immediately rather than waiting on a revalidation.
*/
export const dynamic = 'force-dynamic';
export async function GET() {
const payload = await getCachedPayload();
const { docs } = await payload.find({
collection: 'posts',
where: { _status: { equals: 'published' } },
sort: '-publishedAt',
limit: 500,
depth: 0,
});
const urls: Array<{ loc: string; lastmod: string | null }> = [
{ loc: absoluteUrl('/about'), lastmod: null },
{ loc: absoluteUrl('/blog'), lastmod: null },
...docs.map((post) => ({
loc: absoluteUrl(`/blog/${post.slug}`),
lastmod: new Date(String(post.updatedAt ?? post.publishedAt)).toISOString(),
})),
];
const xml = `<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
${urls.map(({ loc, lastmod }) =>
` <url><loc>${loc}</loc>${lastmod ? `<lastmod>${lastmod}</lastmod>` : ''}</url>`,
).join('\n')}
</urlset>`;
return new Response(xml, {
headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/xml; charset=utf-8' },
});
}
+4 -1
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@@ -17,6 +17,9 @@ export default function robots(): MetadataRoute.Robots {
disallow: ['/api/', '/_next/', '/admin/', '/cms-api/'],
},
],
sitemap: absoluteUrl('/sitemap.xml'),
// Two sitemaps: /sitemap.xml is proxied from FastAPI and carries the
// school corpus; /content-sitemap.xml is Next-owned and carries /about
// and the blog. The backend knows nothing about Payload.
sitemap: [absoluteUrl('/sitemap.xml'), absoluteUrl('/content-sitemap.xml')],
};
}
+9 -8
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@@ -4,21 +4,22 @@ import { lexicalEditor, BlocksFeature } from '@payloadcms/richtext-lexical';
import { Callout } from '@/blocks/Callout';
/**
* Revalidate everything a post appears on.
* Drop the cached copy of a post page when it changes.
*
* Blog pages are ISR: CI builds the image with no database reachable, so they
* cannot be statically generated at build time. Without this, a published post
* would not appear until the revalidate window expired — up to an hour of a
* writer reasonably concluding that publishing is broken.
* Only the post page needs this. The blog index, the RSS feed and the content
* sitemap are force-dynamic — they have no dynamic params, so Next would
* prerender them at build time, where CI has no database — which means they
* already reflect a change on the next request.
*
* /blog/[slug] is ISR: generated on first request and cached, so without this
* an edit to an already-published post would not appear until the revalidate
* window expired — up to an hour of a writer concluding that saving is broken.
*
* Payload runs in the same process as Next, so this is a direct revalidatePath
* call: no webhook, no shared secret, no network hop to get wrong.
*/
function revalidatePost(slug: string) {
revalidatePath('/blog');
revalidatePath(`/blog/${slug}`);
revalidatePath('/content-sitemap.xml');
revalidatePath('/blog/rss.xml');
}
export const Posts: CollectionConfig = {
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
.caveat,
.note {
border-left: 3px solid var(--brand);
background: var(--brand-bg);
padding: 1rem 1.15rem;
margin: 1.75rem 0;
border-radius: 0 8px 8px 0;
}
.note {
border-left-color: var(--border-strong);
background: var(--bg-secondary);
}
.body {
font-family: var(--font-ui);
font-size: 0.95rem;
line-height: 1.65;
color: var(--text-primary);
margin: 0;
}
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
import styles from './CalloutBlock.module.css';
/**
* Renders the Callout block from blocks/Callout.ts. The "caveat" tone is the
* one that matters: it is how a post says what a number does not show, in
* context, rather than burying it in a closing paragraph.
*/
export function CalloutBlock({ tone, body }: { tone: string; body: string }) {
return (
<aside className={tone === 'caveat' ? styles.caveat : styles.note}>
<p className={styles.body}>{body}</p>
</aside>
);
}
+44
View File
@@ -32,3 +32,47 @@ export function organizationJsonLd() {
logo: absoluteUrl('/icon-512.png'),
} as const;
}
interface PostSummary {
title: string;
slug: string;
excerpt: string;
publishedAt: string;
}
/**
* References the Person and Organization by @id rather than repeating them, so
* search engines resolve every post and the About page to the one author
* entity. Repeating the shape would declare several people with one name.
*/
export function blogPostingJsonLd(post: PostSummary) {
return {
'@type': 'BlogPosting',
headline: post.title,
description: post.excerpt,
url: absoluteUrl(`/blog/${post.slug}`),
datePublished: post.publishedAt,
author: { '@id': `${SITE_URL}/about#tudor` },
publisher: { '@id': `${SITE_URL}#organization` },
} as const;
}
export function breadcrumbJsonLd(post: PostSummary) {
return {
'@type': 'BreadcrumbList',
itemListElement: [
{
'@type': 'ListItem',
position: 1,
name: 'Blog',
item: absoluteUrl('/blog'),
},
{
'@type': 'ListItem',
position: 2,
name: post.title,
item: absoluteUrl(`/blog/${post.slug}`),
},
],
} as const;
}