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3BL Content Editor: Formatting, Media & HTML Specifications

This guide provides a comprehensive overview of how the editor works, what it supports, and how to maximize performance and discoverability using structured content.

The 3BL Editor is a structured, HTML-based publishing environment. Formatting is not decorative — it is a technical decision that affects how content is rendered, indexed, and distributed.

Character Limits

  • Headline: 255 characters
  • Subheadline: 255 characters
  • Body: No limit
  • Short teaser previews (email distribution): 280 characters

Supported HTML Elements

Content Sanitization & Unsupported Elements The editor automatically removes unsupported or unsafe elements, most commonly:

  • Special characters, emojis, math symbols
  • <div> (except for specific oEmbed use cases) 
  • <span> 
  • <video>
  • <audio>  
  • <iframe>

Before vs After: Enhanced Formatting Example The following example illustrates how structured formatting with multimedia improves clarity, rendering consistency, and semantic hierarchy – overall improving how readers interpret the story.

Rich Content & Performance Considerations Rich content is more than just visual enhancement, it affects rendering behavior, how information is consumed by search engines, accessibility, and consistency distributed across channels.

  • Your headline should clearly communicate what the content is about in less than 60 characters.
  • Use the description to add context about why this topic matters and why your organization is positioned to speak about it.
  • Within the content, the first header (H1) should mirror your headline, using words that communicate authority or nod toward search intent where relevant (i.e., “how,” “why,” “answered,” “explained”).
  • Secondary headers (H2, H3) help break up your content and transition from one topic to the next, which is more readable to robots than a long block of text.
  • Keep each section modular, using short and self-contained sections with one clear idea to avoid long, blended paragraphs covering multiple topics.
  • Add descriptive alt text to images to help visually impaired readers and AI systems interpret the visuals you use.

Read more about 3BL’s framework for optimizing content in our 2026 LLM and Generative AI Writing Guide

The 3BL Content Editor gives marketing, communications, and PR teams the creative flexibility to produce rich, multimedia-driven stories—while ensuring content is structured, sanitized, and distributed consistently across 3BL’s network of 79 partner sites.