8 things to do before publishing a blog post

8 Things to do before publishing a blog post

Working on a blog post isn’t as simple as creating content and publishing it.

In today’s post I’ll share my checklist of a few things I always do before publishing my posts. These few extra steps might take a little of your time and energy, but I can guarantee that they bring awesome results, especially if you want to engage your audience in your content and attract new readers to your blog.

SUBHEADINGS

On average, it takes about 9 seconds for a visitor to decide whether or not they’re interested in engaging in your content. Bulky blocks of text are often difficult to focus on, that’s why using subheadings is so important. When you section your text (split it in paragraphs) and add a subheading, it makes your post much easier to read.

FORMAT YOUR TEXT

Make sure to highlight important points by adding bold or italic text- this will call attention to them.

SPELLCHECK

This is a no-brainer; we all make mistakes (I know I have) but it’s best to make sure that your posts are easy to read and do not contain any big grammatical errors or misspellings. WordPress has a built-in spellcheck, but I still proofread my content because sometimes a little auto-corrected word might sneak in here and there. Read through your post before publishing it to ensure that there aren’t any typos and if necessary, rewrite any sentences that aren’t very clear or easy to understand.

TAGS & CATEGORIES

Chances are, you have a few different categories on your blog; make sure that each post is added in the relevant category. If you use tags, also make sure that you add relevant ones; this usually helps you out if you use a “related posts” widget under your published content.

ADD INTERNAL LINKS

Adding internal links within your content introduces your readers to your archived posts. It also helps to increase your page views and increases the engagement by giving your readers more information on a given topic. Of course when doing this, only link to relevant content.

LABEL YOUR IMAGES USING YOUR KEYWORD

When adding images to your post, make sure that you use your keywords when you label your images and alt tags. For instance, if you’re writing a recipe for a tomato soup, don’t name your image “image_1273563” but “chicken soup recipe” instead- this way when someone searches for “chicken soup recipe” they might come across your image and discover your post.

CALL TO ACTION

Make sure to end your post with a short conclusion and a call to action. This will help you to engage with your readers: ask them to take action whether it be to share your content,  comment or answer a question.

PREVIEW

Finally, read your post in the preview mode. Make sure that everything is easy to read and looks exactly how you want it to look and fix any errors that you find.

Do you have your own checklist of things to do before you hit publish?