Banaras Insider - Content & Taxi Booking Platform

This is the official repository for the Banaras Insider website, a high-performance content network built with Next.js and designed to be the ultimate travel guide for Varanasi. It combines in-depth, SEO-optimized articles with a direct lead generation funnel for the Vinayak Travels Tour taxi service.

This project is built on the principle of a Git-based CMS. All content (articles) is managed through simple Markdown files, making the entire site fast, secure, and easy to maintain.

Getting Started

Follow these instructions to get a local copy of the project up and running for development and testing purposes.

Prerequisites

You need to have Node.js and npm (or yarn) installed on your machine.

• Node.js (v18 or later recommended)
• npm

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone <your-repository-url>
   cd banaras-insider

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install

3. Run the development server:

   npm run dev

The application will now be running on http://localhost:3000. The site will automatically reload if you make changes to the code.

Project Structure

The folder structure is organized to separate content, logic, pages, and components.

/
├── components/         # Reusable React components (NavBar, Footer, etc.)
├── content/            # All blog articles live here as Markdown files
│   ├── en/             # English articles
│   └── hi/             # Hindi articles
├── lib/                # Helper functions, e.g., for reading Markdown files (posts.js)
├── pages/              # Next.js pages, which map to URL routes
│   ├── api/            # API routes (e.g., for handling form submissions)
│   ├── [lang]/
│   │   ├── index.js    # Blog index page for a language (/en, /hi)
│   │   └── [slug].js   # Dynamic route for a single article
│   └── index.js        # The main homepage
├── public/             # Static assets (images, fonts, favicon)
├── styles/             # Global stylesheets and CSS Modules
└── ...                 # Config files (next.config.js, package.json, etc.)

How to Add and Manage Content

This is the core workflow of the project. Every new article is a new Markdown file.

1. Create a New File: To create a new English article, add a file to the /content/en/ directory. The filename will become the URL slug.

   • Example: /content/en/my-new-post.md will be accessible at /en/my-new-post.

2. Use the Frontmatter Schema: At the top of your new file, add the YAML frontmatter block with all the required metadata.

   ---
   title: 'My Awesome New Post Title'
   slug: 'my-new-post'
   date: '2025-07-21'
   author: 'Abhinav Pandey'
   featuredImage: '/images/posts/my-new-image.jpg'
   description: 'A short, compelling summary of the article for SEO.'
   tags: ['guide', 'food', 'varanasi']
   ---

3. Write Your Content: Below the frontmatter, write your article using standard Markdown syntax (## for H2, ### for H3, * for lists, etc.).

4. Add Images: Place your images in the /public/images/posts/ directory and reference them in your Markdown like this: ![Alt text for image](/images/posts/my-new-image.jpg).

5. Commit and Push: Once you are done, commit the new Markdown file and the new image file to your Git repository. If your project is deployed on a service like Vercel or Netlify, this push will automatically trigger a new build and deploy your new article to the live site.

Available Scripts

In the project directory, you can run:

• npm run dev: Runs the app in development mode.
• npm run build: Builds the app for production.
• npm run start: Starts a production server (you must run build first).

Technology Stack

• Framework: Next.js
• Styling: Tailwind CSS & CSS Modules
• Content: Markdown
• Markdown Parsing: gray-matter & remark