Blog > The Ultimate Blog Pre-Publish Checklist: Ensuring a Perfect Blog Post Every Time
Jack Lloyd
Product MarketerYour blog serves as a window into your business, showcasing your expertise and passion. However, hitting the publish button on a new post can sometimes be a little daunting.
There’s lots to remember in order to make sure your post is well received and achieves what you want it to achieve. Don’t worry though, we’ve got you covered.
This comprehensive pre-publish checklist will make sure that your blog posts are polished, engaging, and ready to attract and convert your audience.
1. Backup Your Work
Before anything else, you should make sure you have a backup of your content. This safeguard protects against data loss due to technical issues or accidental deletions. Regular backups are a good practice and provide peace of mind as your site grows. We recommend writing your blog in Microsoft Word or Google Docs beforehand to make sure you always have a copy saved.
2. Content Clarity and Relevance
Before hitting publish, revisit your post’s purpose. Does it address the problems or needs of your target audience? Keep your content focused on providing solutions that resonate with your readers. This not only enhances engagement but also establishes your credibility as a go-to resource in your niche.
3. SEO Optimisation
We’ve covered how to optimise for SEO extensively on our blog and in our Help Centre. This will help you to improve your blog’s visibility in the search results. Include relevant keywords naturally throughout your post; especially in the title, headings, and first paragraph. Also, ensure your metadata is completed to help your post stand out in search results.
Check out the SEO Content Checklist here >>
4. Visual Appeal
Add relevant images, infographics, or videos to break up text and add visual interest. A large wall of text can sometimes be off putting for your readers, but images can help to pace your writing and support your writing with interesting and captivating visuals. Where you can, you should always make sure your images are optimised for faster loading and sustainability!
Find out how to optimise your images >>
5. Readability Check
Your blog post should always be easy to read and understand. Using short paragraphs, bullet points, and subheadings can all help to make information more digestible. Tools like Hemingway or Grammarly can also help you simplify complex sentences and correct grammatical errors, making your content more readable and easy to understand.
6. Call to Action
End your post with a compelling call to action. Encourage readers to comment, share your post, or explore your services. This not only fosters community but also helps convert readers into customers. If you have products related to the content you’ve written, why not include them in a carousel and encourage people to check them out? Or link to your relevant services.
7. Legal Compliance and Accessibility
Ensure your content complies with accessibility standards and copyright laws. Use alt text for images, provide transcripts for videos, and check that your content is readable by screen readers. This inclusivity can broaden your audience and enhance user experience… and complying with copyright should speak for itself!
8. Cross-Linking
Link to other relevant posts or pages on your website. This will not only help improve your blog’s SEO but will also keep readers engaged with more of the content on your site for longer. Make sure all links are working correctly to maintain a professional appearance and user trust. You can use a tool like the Broken Link Checker to stay on top of all your internal linking.
9. Responsive Design Check
Ensure your blog post looks good on all devices, including desktops, tablets, and smartphones. Since many users will access your content via mobile devices, it's crucial to check that images display how you are expecting. Create’s platform will handle how your images resize, but a quick manual check can help to make sure images are cropped how you would expect and smaller important details aren’t hard to see at smaller sizes.
10. Social Media Integration
Make it easy for readers to share your posts on social media. If you're on Create, you’ll already find options for your readers to share your content to social media. You can also add social icons to your content to encourage people to follow you on the relevant platforms. Don’t forget to also create OG data to control how your blog post is displayed on social media platforms when someone shares your content.
11. Email Newsletters
If you have an email newsletter, make sure to mention your new post in the upcoming issue. This can drive your existing subscribers back to your website and give your post initial traction. You can also include an email sign up call-to-action on your blog itself to attract more interested readers to your list that you can reach time and again.
12. Performance Metrics Setup
If you haven’t already, you should be sure to set up Analytics. The data will help you understand how well your posts are performing and guide your content strategy moving forward. If there are specific actions you would like to track, you should also consider setting up UTM links. These help you to get really specific about what you’re tracking and identify your blog’s level of success.
Wrapping Up
Creating compelling blog content as a small business owner doesn't have to be overwhelming. With this simple pre-publish checklist, you're equipped to produce posts that not only look great but also resonate deeply with your target audience. Remember, each blog post is an opportunity to showcase your expertise and draw more traffic to your website.
You can download a printable copy of this checklist by clicking the image below. Keeping one of these handy can help to make sure you’re ticking off the essentials as you go and that you’re always confident about hitting that publish button!
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