Last Updated on by Michael Brockbank
It’s hard enough to come up with good topics for your audience and then writing out the content. But, there are a few things you need to do before clicking to publish that blog post. Today, we’ll go over a few things you should consider.
After all, you want people to read the article, right? Are you looking to make more money from your blog?
If you said yes to either of these, then you’re going to need to do a bit more than just publish the content.
How to Get More from Your Blog Post Before You Publish It
Most seasoned bloggers already do most if not all of these things below. But, I was asked recently by a viewer about how he could get more out of his content.
So, I figured I would go over some of the things I do before submitting an article.
1. Is it an Article Your Audience Wants to Read?
When you’re publishing content to reach as many visitors as possible, you need to make sure you’re writing something they want to read. Now, this is something you should have considered beforehand. But, also take a look at it and make sure the piece is still relevant.
I’ve thrown away countless articles because they didn’t meet my standards of what I believe my audience wants to read. And I’ve published a few things that were more for me than anything.
Still, you always want to make sure that you’re offering something that will pique the interest of your readers.
2. Always Check for Spelling and Grammar
Visitors are going to judge the level of your expertise in any topic against your grammar and spelling. Even if you offered the most insightful piece of information ever written, you’ll lose the audience if you can’t convey your words properly.
This doesn’t mean you need to be an English major. But, you still need to make sure you’re stringing a proper sentence together.
Personally, I use the Grammarly Chrome extension. It works beautifully in WordPress and has saved me a lot of aggravation. Just make sure you double-check the errors. No automated system is 100% accurate.
3. Find at Least 5 to 10 Internal Links
Before you hit publish on that blog post, check to see if you can create three or more internal links. This will help your content rank higher as Google sees these as important to the article.
And once you’re done doing that, see if you can find more links from old blog posts to the new one.
Think of internal links as “votes” that tell Google what articles are the most important to your website. We’ve seen articles vastly improve search position just by adding internal links aiming at the post.
4. Is the Blog Post Properly Structured for SEO?
If you’re really trying to get your content into search results, you need to write for SEO. This includes everything from proper keyphrases to understanding search intent.
You may also want to consider whether your images are optimized, if you have any at all. Images that are too large in file size can slow your page loading time. This, in turn, triggers Google to rank your content lower.
Make sure everything on the page is running smoothly and is optimized to make Google happy.
5. Can you Add More to the Blog Post Before You Publish?
You want to make sure you thoroughly cover the topic of which you’re writing. This means making sure there isn’t much more you can add to give the article more meat.
Now, you can save deeper insights if you’re planning on doing another post relevant to the topic. In fact, it can easily give you internal links if you do.
But, it doesn’t hurt to add as much context as possible. Especially if you’re covering a popular topic. You’ll need to one-up the competition, and sometimes this means diving deeper into the content.
6. Sharing on Social Media
If you’re serious about blogging, I suggest creating social media accounts specifically for your website. This keeps personal sharing apart from that of your blog.
Then, you can use something like Publicize in Jetpack to automatically share the blog post as soon as you hit the Publish button.
Even if you don’t really care about social media, there’s a good chance your audience probably does. You don’t even have to interact if you don’t want to. Just set your blog to share your posts automatically.
7. The Power of Push Notifications
Using push notifications will keep subscribers updated any time you publish new content. And, some of those people may come to your website immediately to read that article.
You’ve more than likely seen push notifications in action. YouTube uses them for video uploads and comments, Microsoft sends them out periodically concerning updates, perhaps you’ve even seen Steam use them to announce when your friends are playing certain games.
Push notifications are everywhere because they are an effective tool for keeping people coming back for more content.
8. Ads, Affiliates, and Merch!
Before you’re ready to submit your article, make sure all of your money-making systems are in place. This includes ads, using affiliate links, or offering merch that you might be selling.
I can’t count the number of times when I forgot to add something until days later. Unfortunately, that means I missed out on possible sales in the meantime.
If you’re using WordPress, plugins like Advanced Ads can add a lot of those things for you automatically. All you need to do is set how you want the ads, banners, and links to show up on your website.
In any case, make sure your income generators are included.
9. Preview the Blog Post Before You Publish!
And lastly, it’s always a good idea to preview your blog post. Things in the WordPress editor may look completely different on the front end of your website.
For example, your theme could be incorrectly sizing an embedded video or image.
Previewing lets you see how the post will appear, which gives you a chance to make adjustments. For many visitors, this blog post will be the first time they experience your website. Make sure it’s a good one.
Remember, a good first impression is pivotal to success.
Use a Checklist Before You Publish the Blog Post
One of my favorite plugins currently is PublishPress Checklists. It lets you set up a list of things you need to complete before it will let you even hit the Publish or Schedule button.
Since you can customize the checklist, you can include virtually anything you want for every single post you create.
For example, I can’t publish an article unless I have more than 1200 words and 3 internal links minimum. Think of it as a reminder that you want certain things done to every blog post.
The best part is that PublishPress Checklists integrates with other WordPress plugins. For instance, you can set it where you can’t publish a post unless the SEO and Readability scores in Yoast SEO are “green.”
But if you don’t like PublishPress, there are many other checklist plugins available in WordPress. Or, you can even just write down what you want to do on a notepad.
Regardless of how you want to do it, checklists can easily help you create perfect articles for your audience and search engines.
Don’t Just Merely Publish Your Blog Post
It takes a lot more to build a popular website than just writing something up and hoping for the best. You need to give your content some kind of an edge, especially if you have a lot of competition for the topic.
Sometimes the simplest additions can have the greatest results.
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