So you’ve finished writing a mind-blowing blog post and are ready to share it with the world? Before hitting that publish button, run through this checklist to make sure you get the most out of your content!
1. Make sure you have no regrets
Bottom line: If you suspect you might regret it later – don’t publish your post. What you post online always has the potential of staying online forever thanks to linking, quoting and screenshotting.
Make sure you have zero doubt in your mind before hitting “publish.”
2. Proofread, Proofread and Proofread!
Make sure you have reviewed and proofread your content enough times to catch any typos, missing words and/or words used incorrectly.
Try getting as many different eyes on your content as possible because different people will catch different mistakes. Tools such as Grammarly can also be helpful in the proofreading process.
This is an extremely important step because errors can take away from the quality of your content.
3. Double check voice, structure and formatting
Make sure your content has a voice, structure and format that is consistent with your brand guidelines, to further solidify your brand identity.
4. Optimize for one or two keyword search phrases
Your content should be focused on a couple of keywords to support its findability and enhance SEO efforts.
5. Include links
Make sure you are linking to additional relevant content both internal and external. The point of a link is to not only mention your source but allow your readers to see the evidence for themselves.
Try associating these links with specific keywords within your content. This will help tremendously with your SEO goals.
6. Ensure your headline is as attention-grabbing as possible
Make it engaging, descriptive and short. You want it to grab your readers’ attention and persuade them to click on your post.
If possible, try incorporating one of your target keywords at the beginning of the title. This will help with your optimization efforts.
7. Include multimedia
Reading through chunks of texts can get boring pretty quickly. Including photos and videos helps ensure your readers stay engaged and read until the very end.
Don’t forget to make sure your images are copyright-cleared for commercial use prior to publishing.
8. Format content to facilitate readability
Make sure your content is formatted in a way that is easy for the reader to scan and digest. You can do this by writing in smaller paragraphs, using bullet points and bolding certain words and phrases to help guide your reader.
9. Shorten Permalink
Rather than having the URL of your post be automatically designed by your publishing platform, customize it yourself to be relevant to your content. This will make the URL much cleaner and easy to share.
10. Incorporate a call to action (CTA)
All of your content should inspire your readers to engage in a specific action such as visiting your site or scheduling a meeting.
Make sure somewhere in your content, preferably at the end, there is an explicit CTA directing your reader to take the next step.
Were you able to check off all of these items? If not, keep working on it until you can. If yes, hit publish and share your content with the world wide web!
Need some help developing content that aligns with your marketing strategy? Give us a call today and we’ll help get you started!
