Want to make sure your blog has all the essential elements?
Here’s a better blog checklist you can follow before you publish your next post.
1. Headline
Is it attention grabbing and compelling? SEO-friendly? When you share it on other social networks is it going to make people stop what they’re doing to read it? This is one of the toughest but most important parts of your post. But if you can’t engage your readers, you won’t have any.
2. Tone and voice
Who are you writing to? How are you going to convey your message? Do you want to come across as the expert? Or someone who’s sharing their knowledge as you learn?
3. Content
Keep your posts to 1 idea. Maximum. Remember, the ideal blog post length is anywhere from 250 to 1000 words. If you find you’ve got a handful of ideas in a post, well, lucky you; break them up into additional posts for later.
4. Structure
Remember that most people avoid doing anything that seems like work. That includes reading a full page of text on your blog. People read differently online – they scan and jump around. Make sure that your blog post is like candy for the eyes. Make it look appealing and it’s more likely to be read. Try these ideas to break up your copy:
- Short paragraphs
- Bullet points, numbered lists, or checklists
- Highlight important words or phrases by making them bold
- Ask questions, or try presenting your information in a Q&A format
5. Keywords
Have you done your keyword research? Are your pages optimized for those key terms and phrases? Make sure you don’t just dump the keywords into your copy for SEO’s sake. It has to be readable and coherent to your readers, not just the spiders.
6. Links
Check and double check to make sure all of your links are working properly, that they’re opening in the proper windows, and that your anchor text is keyword dense.
Example: Instead of, “Read more here”, try, “Read about Leah’s copywriting services.”
7. Permalinks
Have you optimized them for better SEO? The search engines will use the keywords you’ve chosen to classify your page. The better your keywords, the higher quality search visits you’ll attract to your site.
8. Editing
Ok, so you don’t need perfect grammar. But please do triple check your work to make sure it’s as good as it’s going to get. If you’re trying to get your readers to take you seriously, or even return to your site, this is a very good habit to get into.
9. Images
Are you using images that are relevant and eye catching? Are they necessary? Do they help explain your point or a demonstrate an idea? Are they properly sized for your post?
10. Best date and time for publishing
When are people usually online? Aim for publishing or promoting your blog at those times. You don’t want to end up at the bottom of someone’s list of 400 new RSS feeds!
