Korea Handbook

Overview

Korea Handbook is a WordPress travel site I built and run. It covers South Korea destinations, practical tips for Seoul and Jeju Island, and general visitor advice. I manage it as an ongoing project, handling everything from the initial WordPress setup and site structure to content taxonomy, front-end customization, and regular maintenance as new guides are published.

Problem

A destination site covering multiple regions (Seoul, Jeju Island, broader South Korea) and different content types (guides, tips, practical advice) can easily feel scattered. The structure needed to help readers find what they were looking for without the site feeling like a pile of unrelated posts.

My Role

I built and run the site: WordPress setup, theme customization, content taxonomy, navigation structure, and ongoing maintenance as new content is published.

Key Features

• •WordPress site built for ongoing South Korea travel publishing.
• •Navigation organized around reader intent: Seoul, Jeju Island, destinations, travel tips, and core pages.
• •Long-form article layouts designed for comfortable reading on mobile.
• •Internal linking between destination guides and related practical advice.

Technical Decisions

• •WordPress as the CMS so new guides and travel tips can be added and updated through a familiar publishing workflow.
• •Navigation organized around what readers are looking for rather than internal content categories.
• •Categories, tags, and internal links work together to keep content findable as the library grows.

Challenges Solved

• •Building a taxonomy that covers Seoul, Jeju Island, broader South Korea destinations, and practical travel tips in a way that makes sense to a reader who may not know the differences.
• •Designing long-form article layouts that are comfortable to scan and read on a phone.
• •Connecting related content through internal links so readers have somewhere useful to go after finishing a guide.

Technical Considerations

• •Mobile-first layouts for long-form travel guides, since a lot of travel research happens on phones.
• •Structured headings within articles so readers can skip to the section they need.
• •Clean page layouts that don't compete with the content for attention.
• •Performance management as the content library grows, so older posts don't drag down load times.

What I Would Improve Next

• •Improved destination landing pages as more South Korea guides are published.
• •Tighter internal linking between Seoul, Jeju Island, and related destination content.
• •Regular mobile readability and page speed checks as the site grows.