Carousel
The Hero Carousel is the large, swipeable slider shown near the top of the Crimson homepage. It’s designed to spotlight your most important content in a visually prominent way. You can choose whether it highlights:
Featured posts (best for curated hero content), or
Latest posts (fully automatic and always fresh)
Where it appears
The carousel is rendered on the homepage template
It only shows when enabled in: Settings → Design & branding → Site wide → Theme → Show carousel
When enabled, it appears near the top of the homepage, typically:
After the Trending Ticker (if the ticker is enabled), otherwise near the top.
What it shows
Number of posts
Displays up to 3 posts
Shows fewer if fewer are available
Content source (Featured vs Latest)
You control the source from theme settings: Carousel slider posts → Featured Posts or Latest Posts
Featured Posts - Uses posts marked as Featured in the Ghost editor. Great when you want full control over what appears.
Latest Posts - Uses the most recently published posts. Great when you want a homepage that updates automatically without manual curation.
Theme settings (Ghost Admin)
In Settings → Design & branding → Theme → Homepage group, you’ll typically see:
1) Show carousel
Turns the Hero Carousel ON/OFF for the homepage.
2) Carousel slider posts
Chooses which posts populate the carousel:
Featured Posts → uses posts marked “featured” in Ghost
Latest Posts → uses your most recently published posts
Notes
If there are fewer than 3 qualifying posts, the carousel will show as many as available.
If no posts match (example: set to Featured Posts but you have zero featured posts), the carousel area may appear empty.
How it behaves (User experience)
The Hero Carousel is built for modern browsing and typically behaves like this:
Autoplays slides automatically
Loops continuously (after the last slide it returns to the first)
Shows pagination dots so visitors can jump between slides
Pauses autoplay on hover (desktop) so visitors can read comfortably
Supports swipe gestures on touch devices (thanks to Swiper)
Troubleshooting
I enabled the carousel but nothing shows.
Check these:
Show carousel is enabled
If carousel source is Featured Posts:
You’ve marked at least 1 post as Featured
Visibility / access rules
If your carousel posts are members-only or paid-only, they may not be visible to logged-out visitors depending on your Ghost membership/access setup.
Quick test: open your homepage in an incognito window and see if the carousel appears.
Does it affect SEO?
Not negatively in a typical setup.
Carousel posts are still normal links to your post pages.
The carousel is primarily a layout/UX feature, so SEO impact is generally neutral.
For best SEO outcomes:
Use strong post titles
Use high-quality featured images
Ensure your hero posts are worth clicking
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