As a blogger, I want to make sure everything is perfect before I put out my blog post, and after it is published. Therefore I have created a checklist of things to do whenever I create a new post. Hope this helps!
Yoast SEO analysis
Before publishing my post, I check the Yoast SEO. I do this by making sure both dots are green. First you have to install this as a plugin. Once you have done this, you will get a logo in the top right corner of your editing screen.
If you click on this icon, it gives you a colour code of what your readability is, and your SEO analysis. At the moment, because I have only just started this post, it doesn’t have a very good score. But once I continue to add more things and go onto the icon, it will then go up! I always aim to get both dots green. Therefore I click on the icon, and it gives me a list of things to improve on. This can be things such as, not enough transition words, no images, no outbound links etc. Using this plugin is really good as it suggests what you need to improve on and also gives you examples if you didn’t understand. Having a high SEO also can improve you DA score too!
The plugin looks like this:
Links to Social Media
Having links to your social media is a really good way of growing your page This allows your followers to check out your other platforms that you may perform on. This is a really good way to interact with your audience too!
New Tabs
When adding your social media links, or links to other websites, I always make sure I switch it to ‘open in new tab’ like this:
Doing this allows your audience to stay on your page ( which helps your stats) but also takes them to a new page to look at. This means they can then switch back to your blog from where they were.
No Broken Links
When adding links to your posts, you must make sure the links work! You can do this by using http://www.brokenlinkchecker.com
When using this website, you add your URL (your website) and it takes a few minutes to assess it. After this it will then give you a copy of what links may be broken. You can then go back to edit them on WordPress.
Meta Description
Having a meta description helps people get a sneak peak of your blog post. You must make this catchy and interesting in order to make the audience want to click on your post! I would type things that are relevant to the post and that make the post sound fascinating.
Featured Image
The importance of having a featured image for your blog post is it allows the reader to have a visual idea of what the post may be. In this case I would create an image about blogging. If it was a post about food, I would have an image of food.
I tend to make my own featured images using Canva, or take an image that I have used in the post.
Categorise your blog post
Categorising your posts can allow your audience to see posts that they may be interested in and that are similar. For example some of my categories are; blogging, mental health, reviews, tags etc. You can have as many categories as you like and put one post into multiple of them. In this case, this post would be put in with blogging and tips.
Links to related posts
Adding links at the end of your post to other posts allows your audience to stay on your blog longer. I tend to add links to related posts because if my audience have clicked on this post, they might be interest in related ones. Because this post is all about blogging, I would link my other blog related posts too!
Add tags
Adding tags to your post allows the reader to get an idea of what your post is about. For this post I would add tags such as ‘blogging’ ‘checklist’ ‘lbloggers’ etc.
Share the post
In order to increase your stats after posting, you should share your posts to other websites and social media platforms. I tend to share my posts to places such as Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, Bloglovin’ and more….
Check out my Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/demilehuray
(Other social medias are linked near bottom of post!)
Images
Adding images to your post makes it look more interesting! It also helps with your SEO too. (only add relevant photos though!)
Stats
The day after I have published the post, I tend to check my stats to see how well the post has done. If it is low, I try to promote the post better to increase the views.
Key phrase
A key phrase is really important to use as you put in the main word of what your post is about. This can also increase your SEO. In this case, my key phrase is ‘blog’
Errors
Once I have written my post, I read through at least 2 times to make sure and check for any errors, to make sure it makes sense, and if anything needs to be improved.
Related posts:
Social Media:
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This was super helpful, I wish I was able to add the Yoast plugin for my blog because it looks extremely useful.
It is soooo useful and really helps with my editing and to help my Da score
This is a great tick list type of post for bloggers of all sizes! I love Yoast, it makes my life so much easier!
Rosie
I know right! Yoast is honestly my lifesaver!
I didn’t know about Yoast SEO and this is interesting so thank you!
It is honestly the best thing I have installed x
Great checklist for all bloggers. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you
Great checklist! I do all of these things before posting any blog posts as well. Checking through for errors is a big one! I’ll often read through a post multiple times and then suddenly spot a mistake 🙂
https://www.femaleoriginal.com
Me too!!
I check and double check for typos! Preview mode is also helpful to me in seeing what the post will look like once it is published; sometimes my formatting is off and needs to be revised.
Thanks for sharing this handy checklist!
That sounds good, I’ll give it a try x
These are such great tips, so helpful!
Thank you
Brilliant tips, hun! I’ve been using a few of these for years before I post. I know my grammar is atricious but I have fun regardless! Haha!
My grammar and spelling is atrocious too lol!
[…] What I always check for each of my blog posts: […]
Great ideas! I am doing everything you suggest, but I also use a grammarly app to check for spelling and grammar errors. Free and saves lots of time second guessing yourself!
That sounds worth looking at!