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We all want to create killer content right? Of course, we do! That is why you need to make sure you have all the elements of an outstanding blog post every time you hit publish. Having a blog post checklist is a super handy way to do this. That way, when you proofread your blog post you know exactly what you are checking for.
The Mind-blowing (+Free) Blog Post Checklist
Review Your Post
Reviewing your post is the first thing you should do. Why is this an important part of your blog checklist? Well, you could have the best marketing strategy, but if your content contains loads of spelling mistakes or is a bit fluffy, it isn’t going to get readers to stick around.
keywords
This is an essential part of your written content for SEO purposes. Keywords are what lets Google and other search engines know what your post is about. An amazing site for this is Neil Patel’s, Ubersuggest. I have used this for over a year now and it has proven invaluable in helping me start to rank for certain keywords on Google.
Related: How to Self-host the Easy Way
Subheadings
Subheadings make your content much more readable and easy to digest. Most people scan content (I know that I do!). That means, by having subheadings you can grab the attention of your readers and make them stop scanning and start reading. An extra bonus is that if you have keywords in your subheadings, Google loves it.
Short Paragraphs
Notice how all these paragraphs are only a few lines long? just like subheadings, this makes it easier to read and less overwhelming. Try and split your long paragraphs up a bit, but don’t go over the top and make it disjointed.
Answering your question?
Make sure that your content is answering the question that your reader wants answering. If it’s not, then your readers are going to be wondering why they wasted their time and you guessed it, probably won’t be coming back.
Images
Images are a great way of breaking up your writing and making your content appealing. Keyword your images for added SEO and make sure they are relevant to your topic you are writing about. Try to have an image for each of your subheadings or at least every other if they are short.
Formatting
When going through your blog checklist something that can sometimes be missed is formatting. Make sure you format things the same, for example, if you double-space, then do it consistently. Consistency is the key when it comes to looking clean and polished across your site.
Links
Have you got enough links? Or maybe you have too many? Do a quick link check. Are all your affiliate links no follow? Do you have a good mix of follow and no follow, internal and external? Make sure you do.
Conclusion
Finally, vet your conclusion. Are you creating a conversation? This opens up the opportunity for your readers to extend the discussion in your comments section which Google also loves BTW. Asking a question in your conclusion leaves the dialogue open without being too final.
Lastly, make sure you are actually giving a short summary of your post. That’s what a conclusion is meant to be remember, and it’s important not to skip this part of your blog checklist.
Promotion Strategy
This is great! you’ve made it through checking your content, and now into the next part of your ultimate blog checklist. Your promotion strategy.
This is the best place for bloggers to promote their content for free. There are a lot of tools you can use for Pinterest to help maximise your reach as well. These are tools such as Tailwind and Tailwind Tribes. You can read my review of tailwind here.
Related: Why you need Tailwind
Pin manually or by scheduling, but whatever you do, work out a Pinterest strategy that works for you. Do this by testing and sometimes trial and error. Yes, Tailwind costs money, but you can use tribes for FREE! and it’s a great way to help get your content out there.
Facebook + Twitter
If Facebook and/or Twitter is part of your strategy then don’t forget this part of your promotion. If your audience isn’t on these platforms then make sure you focus on the areas that they are.
This is much the same as Facebook and Twitter. Not everyone’s audience is on Instagram, but if it is, promote your new post in your story or on your grid.
You have probably heard how important your email list is. So I am not going to go on about it. Just know that your email list SHOULD know about your new content. Whether you do this weekly or do a monthly round-up. Just make sure that you do it. Those people have subscribed because they want to hear read your posts, so don’t forget about them!
Related: How to Make Sure your Pinterest Profile is Fully Optimised
Blogger Outreach
This particular part of your blog post checklist can be scary. You will be surprised how many responses you get back though. If you link to another bloggers site in your post, then email them and let them know. They might just give you a bit of free promotion on their social channels. You never know unless you try.
Added bonuses for your Blog Post Checklist
Mix
Mix.com is an online platform that used to be called stumble upon. This is a great place to post your content. You literally just have to make an account and then upload your links. Then people see your content when it comes up when they search for something related to your post. I have received a decent amount of traffic from here.
Blog post Vote Up
This is similar to Mix. Blog Post Vote Up only lets you upload 1 link in a 24hour period, and you have to wait for it to be validated. I have had a bit of traffic from here but nothing major. That doesn’t mean that it’s not worth it.
The way that this platform works is that you vote a thumbs up or down for different posts after you’ve read them. I once had 3 posts trending on here, so I recommend it to be part of your promotion strategy.
Communities such as BTC
BTC or Bloggers Traffic Community is fairly new to me so far. I’m still learning it, but have found it great so far. They have multiple daily traffic, Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook threads to help you gain traffic, subscribers and backlinks. It’s completely free and I have already seen an increase in all my stats across all channels since using it. It is too good to miss out on.
Don’t forget to pin the infographic as a quick reference for your blog post checklist. Throughout this post, I have given you all the tools you need to make sure you write killer content every time you hit publish and to make sure you are promoting in all the right places every time. What’s going to be your next step when creating content?
P.S Make sure to join the BTC here! You will not regret it
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