9 Point Blog Post Checklist to Verify Before You Click That Publish Button

Every blogger knows that writing an excellent post is only half the battle. And now that you are excited that you’ve shared your ideas and expertise with the rest of us, the battleground is now open for the other half.
And you start wondering if professional bloggers have some sort of checklist that they use before publishing their blog posts? Or what should you do next?

The answer is Yes, and here I’m sharing 9-things that you should do before you hit publish to minimise errors and ensure maximum benefits:

1- Write an efficient and catchy post title:
If your headline is weak (even with great content) then people are less to read it, so before you publish your post, make sure that your headline/title is compelling, catchy and it respects these essential points:
– It includes your main keywords or keyphrases.
– It’s persuasive, and it’s encouraging readers to click through.
– If your blog post title and SEO title are not the same, make sure that the “SEO title” is less than 60 characters long to avoid that Google or other search engines will cut it off.

2- Meta Description:
The Meta Description is the brief description that social networks and search engines show under your post title. And if you don’t write an accurate one, then search engines will take the first few lines and chop it off to display something not that good as you will hope to see.
So, make sure you are writing a custom meta description and keep it under 160 characters long.

3- Focus Keyword:
The central subject/theme of your post is usually called “Focus Keyword”, and you need to make sure that it’s included in your post content, title, meta description and the post URL.

4- Headings and Formatting:
When I see a post with massive blocks of text (even if it’s something I’m interested in) I usually close that page and find something that’s better formatted.
So Headings (h2, h3), lists, short paragraphs, bold and others formatting can help with the overall reading experience.
Try to include no more than 5-6 lines of text in your paragraphs and divide up sections with larger headlines.

5- Interlinking or Deeplinking:
Deep linking is linking to old posts from a new post (the one you are writing now).
So, each time you write a post which mentions a subject you’ve written about before, link back to that previous one.
It keeps your readers on your blog for a long time (reducing bounce rate), and also gives them more information (increasing page views).

6- Work on Images:
Make sure that all your post pictures:
– Have proper credits and sources,
– Have appropriate alt tags,
– Add a featured image,
– Use a post thumbnail with proper social media dimensions and since each network has different image sizes, I found that if your images are over 500 x 300, then you are ready to go.

7- Add categories and tags:
It’s constantly recommended to add your new post to the right category and add relevant tags.

8- Include some Call-to-Actions:
Usually, at the end of your post, you should ask your readers to purchase your product, comment on your post, and/or follow you on social media profiles.

9- Proofread, Preview and Test:
I highly recommend proofreading your posts several times before you hit the publish button. Then you should preview it to see how it looks on your blog.
Also, Click through the post links to check if they all work and make sure all images and formatting are good.

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