Last Updated 1 month ago by Emily Standley-Allard
The list is endless when running a successful blog. A good blog post checklist is a vital asset when it comes to developing a proper and consistent promotion strategy for your blog. Getting your message in front of the right eyes is just as important as producing incredible content. With the many steps that go into the creation of a blog post, it’s definitely easy to overlook some things. We may take it for granted but a blog checklist will help you stay on track and generate more traffic to your blog.
Rule Number One – Be Disciplined and Consistent
Consistency with each published post will show a standard of excellence that will get you the best possible rankings with the search engines.
We all have our off days, especially when you’re operating as a solo-preneur but the more we can stay consistent with building quality content and maintaining that high standard that your readers come to expect the better the outcome.
Create a Promotional Strategy
Planning on how you’re going to promote your blog posts takes time. You don’t want to forget any steps or randomly do different things each time. This will create inconsistency in your work.
It’s a good idea to have your blog post check list handy each time you’re about to publish a post so you don’t forget any steps.
Once you have everything written down or printed out in your blog post checklist you can even pass it off to a virtual assistant to do it for you to free up some valuable time.
Once you have several posts published on your blog it’s a good idea to revisit your older posts and “repurpose” them.
Go back and add more content. Add more graphics, visuals, infographics even videos!
Spruce up the grammar and editing if you need to. Grammarly is a godsend with this.
- Take pieces of your blog post and share as an Instagram or Facebook caption
- Create a YouTube video
- Start a Podcast
- Create a free challenge or lead magnet
Adding or subtracting content, updating and revising your posts will help you get a better ranking with the search engines.
Google, Bing, Yahoo and the rest, want to rank our websites and all of our posts but they have some requirements that must be met in order for them to accept and give your content the best rankings possible.
Google has over 200 ranking factors!
Be patient and keep doing the things that get results. You can tell what works and what doesn’t by looking at your analytics on Google and on Pinterest or whatever social network analytics you use.
Keep expanding your efforts and you’re sure to see improvement! It’s tough but stick with it.
It may seem like a lot to do in the beginning, but once you get into the habit it gets much easier and quicker. And when you put so much into your writing, it makes sense to give it the best shot you can for it to rank the highest on Google, get the most social shares and build up your list.
The goal is to become more streamlined in your efforts so you can work smarter but not harder. Here’s some ideas to include on your blog post checklist.
Don’t want to do everything yourself? Get the FREE RESOURCE LIBRARY WITH BITE SIZED RESOURCES!
Tasks to do before posting your post
Research Your Post Topic
What is your topic idea for your blog post?
Do keyword research with a good keyword tool. I use Semrush for all keyword and content competitive research work.
If there are a lot of known competitors on the first page it might be wise to choose another keyword with less competition.
Now that you’ve settled on a topic idea for your article and have done your keyword research you are now ready to do your research.
Do Your Article Research
Start by viewing the competitor’s articles and notice ways that you can improve or get content ideas for your post.
Then you can find other sources for content ideas by doing online searches.
Google Trends or exploding topics or OpenAI is wonderful for generating ideas!
See what topics are missing in your particular niche market. What hasn’t been covered that needs to be? Staying inspired is an art in itself!
Write a Catchy Title
A catchy title is vital to getting people to read your post! It’s probably the most important thing actually. This is your ticket to grabbing more traffic to your post and more subscribers.
Refer to this post for Free blogging tools and software that can help.
Here’s an example of a blah and boring title, “How to Make Money Blogging”.
How about, “How I Make $15,000 Each Month with One Blog Post”. Now which one would you be more apt to click on?
The second title raises curiosity, interest and speaks directly to your targeted audience.
It’s also keyword rich. Someone interested in new blogging techniques would type that into a google search
There are plenty of free tools like CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer to help you as well.
Solve Problems With Your Post
This is key. It’s what readers want. It’s why they’re reading your post to being with. What pain can you solve that your readers would appreciate? Take a poll or survey from your target audience and listen to them. That’s the very best way to really find out what to write about next. Listen and you will get your answers.
Outline your post. Make drafts, edits and add in any relevant affiliate links you think would blend nicely with this particular post.
Write Your Awesome Post
Make sure your post is highly readable. People are short on time and they will simply scan the post to see if it contains the information they are seeking.
Use bullet points and subheadings. I use the Yoast SEO plugin and Google Webmaster both recommend using H2 for subheadings and H3 for sub-sub headings.
Use short sentences and words.
When posting a fresh article be sure to choose the correct category which helps the search engines and searchers find your posts.
Use Tags – Tags are keywords that reveal points in your articles. They’re are the words readers use to find information on your blog so it’s quite important that they’re included.
Use SEO ready Images – Use a good quality featured image at the start of the post and other images or charts here and there to help break up the text. Don’t forget the alt tags!
Make sure you name it with the alt text title because bots can’t read images, only text. i.e. ‘ultimate-blog-post-checklist.jpg’
Fill in the Image Attachment Details – Don’t forget to use the keyword in the Title and Alt text boxes. You can add a link to another page, an offer page, or even an affiliate link if you’re reviewing a product.
Choose the image size, thumbnail, medium, or large and one or two descriptive sentences.
One thing that can bog down page speed is large images. A free website scan can reveal numerous issues that will help improve your traffic!
Include Meta Title – This gets shown in the search engine results pages (SERP) and you are allowed about 60 characters for the title. Longer is better.
Include Meta Description – This also shows in the serp’s. Use the allotted number of characters, 160, or as many as possible to describe the post. Use your keywords in the description for best results.
Include Social Meta Image – This is what shows in the social sharing areas. You can make up your own image(s) or use your featured image for all social media.
Internal Links – They help the search engines with the website layout and the internal sitemap of your website. There should be at least one internal link to another post on your site but not too many.
You want the reader to get the most from each article and not bounce around too much.
External Links – It’s good to have one external link per post related to the topic. If you use multiple links it causes your site to pass along its authority to the links and will negatively affect your rankings.
Embed a Video or a Giph – This is not always necessary but helps the reader absorb more information without having to read.
Videos will also keep viewers on your site longer and will generate a better ranking for your website.
TikTok Marketing Tactics You Need To Know
Add a Call To Action – CTA – What would you like the reader to do next? A call to action can be anything from “Please leave a comment and let us know what you think”, “Sign Up Here”, or “Order your… here.” Be very direct and clear. Don’t use jargon.
Proofread – Grammarly makes proofreading and editing a breeze! Hemingway is another app that helps make your writing clear, concise and more readable.
Re-Index Your Blog Post
It’s best to index your post with Google. Enter into the search bar “fetch as Google” or “Google.com/addurl” and this will bring you to the Search Console.
Once there, enter your new post title and click on Submit to Index.
Do this each time you complete and publish or re-purpose a post.
Post to your Social Media
Facebook (Meta, TikTok, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), Tumblr, and Instagram.
It’s fine if you concentrate on only 2 social platforms like Pinterest and Facebook. It really depends what your niche is. 70% of my traffic comes from Pinterest so naturally that’s the platform I concentrate on but if you’re a start up Human Resource Company you’d also want to focus on LinkedIn for traffic.
Check your web analytics and see exactly where your traffic is coming from and focus your efforts from there.
Here’s a done for you list of over 200 social media bookmarking sites to keep handy so you don’t forget any.
Tailwind is the automatic scheduler for Pinterest and that’s what I use to automatically post my pins.
Check out my post about Tailwind here. It can save you a TON of time and effort!
You can do a combination of automatic pinning and manual pinning but according to Pinterest they don’t care where it comes from as long as it’s original.
10 Ways Tailwind Boosts Your Business
Finally! Publish Your Blog Post!
Preview your post, make any necessary tweaks and changes and when ready click on the ‘publish’ button to see your awesome published post on your website. Great job!!
Then comes the FUN part! Promote that baby!
Use this blog checklist to spread the word around about your new blog post!
Email Broadcast – If you have an email list (and the answer should be yes!) let everybody know that you’ve completed a new post that they might like to share with their friends.
Get Site Comments – Ask the readers to leave a comment and always respond to your viewer’s comments. This is called “audience engagement” and is very important to the viewer and the search engines too.
Use a social share plugin like Social Warfare that makes it easy for your readers to easily share your posts.
You can use PDF and print friendly to turn any post into a PDF and easily print it out.
Connect with a reputable social media Influencer to promote and raise awareness of your blog!
Guest blog to help you build quality back links back to your site.
Create a round-up post using relevant bloggers from your niche. It helps you reach a larger audience for your blog post and you can make some really helpful connections!
Use a professional email signature from Wisestamp! It looks way more professional than just signing off with your name. And this way you’re reaching more than just your email list!
Use Outbrain – With Outbrain you can get your website or blog suggested on some of the top major platforms like Time, CNN, ESPN and more!
Print this blog checklist out and keep it close by so you can tick off everything you need to do before and after you publish your posts.
This is a lot of work, but you don’t have to do everything yourself! Start here to immediately elevate your brand to start driving an avalanche of traffic to your blog posts or website no matter what niche you’re in!
Sign up for more free tips to grow your online presence and build a better business from home!
i love your ideas…
Thank you for commenting!