Do you Blog? Things to care before you hit Publish button

It’s been more than a decade I have been involved in blogging. I have learned through experience to be mindful of certain things before hitting that ‘publish’ button.

Like always, I make sure to share my experience with my readers. This time I have come up with a quick and simple check-list bloggers can use for reference.

Following are the basic blogger’s checklist to consider for every post before going live with your blog posts:

1. Post Title
   • Title should not exceed 70 characters. Always work on 4 various titles which can be used in:
     • Post Title
     • Custom Permalink
     • Image Filename
     • Image Title
   • Should contain a primary keyword which your article is focused on
2. Permalink
   • Don’t forget to edit Permalink, and include the targeted keyword or one long tail keyword or an alternative title, as this would act as 2nd title which also helps to get traffic from SERPs
3. Description
   • Don’t forget to write Excerpt, which should not exceed 160 characters
   • Make sure to use Grammarly.com plugins to avoid silly spelling and grammar mistakes
   • Don’t forget to include Read More Tag (If you are using WordPress)
   • Insert at least one internal link which is related to the current topic
   • Try to have 1 or 2 long-tail keywords
   • Select H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6 headings appropriately instead of just making bold for various headings/titles within article, as these heading tags would act as different titles for various search engines
   • Write for humans not for robots, follow storytelling approach to engage readers
   • Have Lists, bulleted and numbered points where needed
   • Paragraphs should be short for easy and fast reading
   • Plan for one quote/block-quote which can be highlighted and is helpful to post in various social media sites
   • Format the content properly
   • Make sure to cite sources to avoid copyright issues wherever it is applicable
   • Engage your readers with questions or seek their opinion / feedback to have a conversational blog posts
4. Media
   • Have at least one image or photo which would be helpful to republish article in various social media sites
   • Image should contain a proper file name similar to permalink with targeted keywords. This would act as a 3rd title to get traffic from image search sites.
   • Take time to add the following for every image or photo you include in your blog post, as this helps to drive traffic from image search engines like images.google.com
     • Title
     • Caption
     • Alt Text
     • Description
   • Try to find and add a topic related video (Optional)
5. Tags
   • Don’t use too many tags, have just 1 or 2 targeted keywords
   • Try to have 1 or 2 long-tail keywords
6. Categories
   • Select the right and only one category. No need to select parent category when selecting child/nested category.
7. Author
   • If you have many authors who contribute to your blog, make sure to select the right author :)

Am I missing anything fellow bloggers? If so please share the same via comments so that for the next update I’ll get them included in the list. Also, let me know if this basic blogging checklist was helpful to you.