So you’ve written your cute little blog post, filled it to the brim with helpful information that your audience will eat right up, and you’re itching to finally publish it and get that dopamine hit when you cross it off your list (that’s not just me, right?!). 

Great! I’m thrilled that you’re using blogging as a marketing strategy and as a means to offer your potential clients even more value. 

Writing blog posts consistently benefits your business in so many ways:

• They boost your SEO. Google LOVES to see a website that’s consistently being updated. 
• They give your readers a taste of your expertise, positioning you as a credible resource.
• They can be turned into all kinds of content, making marketing easier. 
• They’re a long-term resource, unlike IG posts which don’t have as long a shelf life.
• They connect you to potential clients and help you engage with the ones you already have.

But just writing the blog post isn’t *quite* enough. 

I know. Doesn’t it always seem like there’s always more work to do somehow?

But I promise you that the extra work here is easy and the payoff is huge. 

Before you go about publishing a blog post and close your laptop for the day, run through this quick checklist. You want to make sure that you’re not leaving any stone unturned in terms of optimizing your blog posts for SEO, readability, and conversion.

Blog posts create so many opportunities for growth, so why not make sure you’re taking advantage of all of them?

Ask yourself these questions before publishing a blog post

Did I include internal or external links?

If you’re not familiar, an internal link is something you link to within your own site and an external link is something you link to outside of your site. 

As much as Google loves an updated website, it loves these links.

Why? Because they help Google make sense of your website. And that helps them understand the hierarchy and structure of each page so that they can better recommend your site appropriately in searches. 

And Google aside, these links are valuable in the sense that they give your readers more context and relevant information that you think they’d enjoy based on what they’re reading.

Honestly, this is a step I’m really bad at thinking about during the writing phase. But that’s fine. I just scroll through when I’m finished and see if there are any opportunities to connect the content to other pieces of content, either on my site, or others.

Did I post a CTA (Call To Action)?

At the end of every post, make sure you’re giving the reader the option to take the next step. This could be linking them to your about page to learn more about you, to your landing page to subscribe to your newsletter so they can get more content from you if they liked this, or to your freebie that they could benefit from. 

Remember that when someone’s reading your blog, you may not always know where they’re coming from. Oftentimes, it could be the first time they’re interacting with you. Think about it as the very start of their journey. It’s your job to guide them along to the next logical step. Make it easy for them!

Think about what questions or inclinations they might have next and let that guide your CTAs!

Did I include an option to pin it?

Make sure that readers have the option to easily share your content to Pinterest. The more your content is shared by your audience, the greater the chances it’ll be seen by your dream clients! This is something that you can have set up automatically on your website template.

And while we’re on Pinterest, when I finish a blog post, I also create a handful of pins that I can post sporadically for that post, because Pinterest and blogging go hand in hand! By pinning your blog posts to Pinterest, you’re again casting an even wider net in terms of reaching those potential clients!

Did I make it skimm-able?

All kinds of readers will be reading your blog posts, so it’s important to cater to all of them. 

One person may want to read every single thing that you write, soaking up all of the information like a sponge. But another person may just want the main ideas of the post as quickly as possible before they’re off to the next thing. 

So within your content, make sure you’re giving those skimmers what they want! Bold important sentences. Break larger chunks of text up into multiple paragraphs. Make sub-headers larger. Use bullet points or lists where you can. 

Always take a look at your formatting to see how you can make the readability perfect. No college essays here, please!

Did I proofread?

This one’s pretty obvious, but I even forget about it sometimes when I’m so excited about finally publishing a blog post and getting it out there. Before you publish a blog post, give yourself a little time away from it. A day would be optimal, but I know we don’t always have that luxury, so even just a half hour away can work

And then read it out loud. When you have that space, you’ll be able to see the mistakes that your brain was missing when you were too close to it. 

I’ll also run it through Grammarly — the free version works for me, honestly! — as a second set of eyes. (Also, how was that for a lil external link, heh? 😉)

By reading it outloud, you’re also able to take note of the tone and cadence of your writing. So you’ll be able to add in some extra punctuation to emphasize your voice, like italicizing the words you say with more emphasis or adding in an aside in parenthesis. 

For me, the proofreading stage is always where my writing comes to life. It’s where the magic happens 🪄

Bonus Question To As before publishing a blog post: Did I put the reader first?

Obviously, there are many SEO opportunities with blog writing. But for really successful blog posts, you have to prioritize the reader first. They’re who you’re writing for and they’re going to see right through a blog post that was written only for SEO purposes.

So make sure you’re thinking about their experience first.

• Are you answering their questions?
• Are you talking to them like a human and not keyword stuffing?
• Are you giving them all the content they need to cover the subject, no more & no less?

Plus, Google also really loves when we prioritize our user experience. So it’s a win-win!

Once you’ve answered all of these questions, then you can go ahead and hit “publish” on that blog post. You’ll feel better knowing that while it’s offering valuable content to your readers, it’s also helping to work for you.

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Hey, I’m Kristie! And besides writing website and email copy for the best businesses, I also help business-owners like you feel grounded and less chaotic. 

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