There are tons of things you have to do before publishing a new blog post. Do you remember all of them each time? I sure don't. I've joked in the past that I need a blog publishing checklist for easy reference so I don't forget important things. So here's that checklist! I hope it helps you out on your blogging journey as well!
The first step to publishing your newest blog post is a no-brainer. You have to write the content (obviously). But the thing that people forget is that you also have to edit it. I usually edit the day after writing, so my eyes are fresh. It's amazing how many typos you can find the next day! I also give the post a final once over before publishing – just to ensure I don't miss anything.
Obviously this double edit doesn't work every time. Sometimes I can read a post six times and still not notice that I used "their" instead of "there". But going over the post prior to publishing can really help eradicate those types of errors.
I generally write my blog posts in Microsoft Word, and make the headers bold as I go. But when I copy and paste the text into WordPress, it looks like they are already headers! Sadly, they are not configured that way, and sometimes I forgot to change the configuration. Luckily, YOAST has a handy tool on the side that monitors the readability of your blog, which will stay orange if you don't have any headers configured. I always look at the side bar to make sure I didn't forget my headers!
Another important thing to double check before publishing your blog is that it is optimized for SEO. I know that can get kind of tedious, and you don't want to make your post too robotic by adding unnecessary words like "blog publishing checklist" every five seconds just so that it will meet all of the SEO requirements (see what I did there?), but if you want to be found organically it is something you will have to pay attention too.
You don't have to hit all the recommendations in every post. If using your keyword "enough" times messes up the flow of your post, skip that part. But don't skip the SEO description, or the slug, or adding your keyword to relevant images. Those are easy things you can do to help SEO that won't affect your writing style.
When publishing a blog post, you want to make it as easy for people to share as possible. That's why you should always add at least one pin-able image to every blog post. This way, whenever a fan wants to pin your content, you have a great image ready for them!
I've skipped pinning posts because I couldn't find a nice pin-able image to share. If the only image available when I click the "pin it" button is the horizontally-oriented header, I'm not going to pin the post. Maintaining a flow to my Pinterest account is important to me, and I'm sure it's important to others as well.
I can't tell you how many times I almost published a blog post before I added my juicy juicy affiliate links to it. How am I going to make the big bucks blogging if I don't add affiliate links?
Not every post is going to require affiliate links. It's up to you to decide if your affiliates fit in with your post – but if they do, don't forget to add them!
Speaking of affiliate links, are you thinking of starting a blog? Try Inmotion for hosting! I use it and it's been great!
I don't add disclaimers to all of my posts, only the ones that I have affiliate links in. Since I don't add it to every post, it's incredibly easy to forget. It's also incredibly important. Transparency is one of the most important aspects of blogging for income. Every visitor and potential customer has a right to know which posts are sponsored posts, which links are affiliate links, and which products the blogger just loves.
Click here to get your Free Blog Publishing Checklist Printable!
This is the thing that I forget every time. At least once a month I publish a blog post before I add the featured image. And the best part is that I make the image. I have it. I just get so excited to publish that I completely forget to upload the image. Does anyone else have this problem?
My knack for forgetting the featured image is what inspired me to write this blog post. I realized that I really do need a blog publishing checklist that I can reference before posting. And, I figure if I need it, then tons of other bloggers need it to!
Is there something that you regularly forget to do when publishing a blog post? If so, I hope this checklist hit on it and will be helpful to you! If not, then I admire your organizational skills! Where can I get some of those?
Transparency Disclosure- Some of the links in this article are affiliate links. That means I'll receive a small commission if you decide to click on it and buy something. Don't worry, it doesn't cost you anything extra!