9 Things You Need To Do Before You Publish a Blog Post
Writing a blog post that people will read, share, and pin is no simple task. I’m sure we can all agree that blogging takes time. There are a few elements that need to be included with every blog post that you publish and establishing a routine is very important. Today we’re sharing 9 things you need to do to every blog post before you hit publish. These steps are important for your readers, SEO, and social media.
9 Things You Need To Do Before You Publish a Blog Post
Keyword Research
Your blog post should be written with a purpose. Every blog post should be written with two things in mind:
How will this post help my readers?
- This is where you’ll want to dig into your Google Analytics. What are your most popular posts? What are your readers coming to your site for?
What keywords do I want to rank for?
- Using keyword research tools like SEMrush can help you find the write keywords when writing a blog post. Focus on keywords that people are searching for and use them throughout your blog post.
Create an Effective Title Using Keywords
After you’ve done your keyword research, it’s time to create your title. This is one of the most important steps because it’s all about first impressions. You need to grab your reader’s attention right away or they will keep on scrolling.
Divide Post into Sections Using Headings
Adding headers is important for a few different reasons. First, it makes your post reader friendly. Your readers can quickly scan through the post looking for the information they need. It also helps break up the text into smaller sections making it easier to read. Remember, your writing your blog posts to help your readers so make sure every post is reader friendly.
Use Alt-Tags in Your Images
Every image added to your blog post needs to have an alt text, also known as alt attributes, alt descriptions, and alt tags. The alt-tags are used within the HTML code of your blog post to describe the appearance and function of an image.
Alt-tags allow visually impaired users using screen readers to better understand an on-page image. They will also be displayed in place of an image if an image file cannot be loaded and they provide better image descriptions to search engine crawlers, helping them to index an image properly.
Link to Your Relevant Content
Now’s the chance to keep people on your website for as long as possible. They came to your site for a reason and it’s your job to keep them there for as long as possible. Adding related blog posts within each blog post leads to people spending more time on your site and decreases your bounce rate. The more time they stay on your site reading your blog posts, the better.
Internal linking also makes your site more user-friendly. Instead of having to search through your blog archives or heading to the main website, it’s already there in your content making your site easier to navigate. And, it also boosts your SEO. When you link to relevant content, Google sees your site as more valuable and makes it appear higher in search results.
Include Pinnable Images
Pinterest’s preferred image ratio is 2:3. The minimum width of a pin is 600 pixels and the maximum is 735 pixels. A pinnable image should be 600 x 900 pixels or 735 x 1102 pixels which are both 2:3 ratio.
So, what does that mean? Tall, vertical images look best on Pinterest.
Check out this post on How to Create Pinnable Images
Make it SEO Fabulous
If you want your blog posts to rank higher in search engines, it’s essential that they are Search Engine Optimized. What does this mean? Check out our guide to SEO Your Blog Posts. We’ll help you through the entire process.
End with a Question
Asking a question at the end of a post encourages your readers to leave a comment. This will help you engage more with your readers and learn more about who is visiting your site. This is a win-win for you and your readers.
Proofread and Edit
This is an obvious step and sometimes it’s easy to just hit publish without going back and rereading your entire post but I don’t recommend that. This is an important step that also helps with ranking and SEO. Remember your an expert in your niche and people are coming to your site for a reason. The last thing they want to see are spelling mistakes.
No Comments