Are these items on your blogging checklist?
In our third installment of blogging for beginners, we share with you our essential blogging checklist of things to do after you hit publish.
When creating blog posts, a lot of dedication and time is spent on making the content great. But when the publish button is hit, the second half of a bloggers job begins. Here is a list of important things to do to ensure you have amplified your blog’s reach and maximized its potential.
Checklist Item #1 – Review and Edit
Once your post goes live, it’s important to view it as your readers would. Therefore, you need to log out of your site and visit it as the public would to see if your vision is taking hold. The first thing to check is the grammar. Have another read through to make sure you caught all the typos and your sentences make sense. Next, check to make sure the graphics load properly and are sized correctly. Do they take a long time to load? By making sure that the content’s available immediately and is of good quality, you are ensuring that your visitors have a good experience while on your site.
Checklist Item #2 – Update your Links
Links are the bread and butter of blogs. They are what helps search engines find you in the first place and they help to establish your site as a worthy resource. For every well researched post containing valuable links, you increase your level of authority with the reader. Therefore, you want to ensure that all your referenced links point exactly where you want them to.
Next, check your intra-site linking between your old posts and new. Keep a list of all your published blog posts and refer to it often. If you have written about a topic that complements your current subject matter, why not link back to it. When you do so, consider adding links to both ends, with both the new post and old post referring to each other. In doing so, you are not only breathing new life into older posts, but you are giving the reader related content they may enjoy, thereby keeping them on your site longer.
Checklist Item #3 – Social Media Promotion
If you aren’t on social media, you are missing a huge opportunity to expand your audience. When nearly one-third of the world uses social media networks regularly, it stands to reason that sharing your posts on social media can increase your readership.
When using social media, it’s important to have accounts with each of the platforms that best suit your blog. Not all platforms are used equally by readers, so having your posts on multiple sites increase the chance of people seeing and sharing it.
To advertise your posts, start by creating short, enticing descriptions of your article that would fit the vibe of each platform. Pair those with eye-catching graphics and you have just created interesting content that will entice readers to read more. To learn more about promoting your blog using Facebook, check out our blog here.
Checklist Item #4 – Share with your email subscribers
To build a following, you have probably asked your readers to become subscribers. Those that sign up are interested in your material and want to learn more. By letting your subscribers know about the new content available, you are making it easy for them to stay in touch.
Checklist Item #5 – Customize your email signature
Do you send a lot of emails out in a day? This is a great opportunity to increase your potential following with people that otherwise might not have found you. There are plugins available that can pull the headlines from your latest posts and add them to the bottom of your email. These are great tools as they increase your blog’s reach and help advertise each post that you write.
Checklist Item #6 – Interact with your readers
Building a rapport with your readers is an important part of blogging. It helps builds trust between you and your readers and keeps your readers coming back time and time again. One way to do this is to respond to their comments and interact with them. Not only is it a good business practice but it also helps increase your site traffic as each conversation creates additional unique content for your site.
If you allow a comments section on your blog, make sure you are setting aside enough time to properly respond to comments. There are pages out there that have multiple people interacting on the site but not a word is uttered from the author. This sends a message to the reader that the author is not interested in what their readers think. This apathy can alienate readers and cause them to look elsewhere.
When you do take the time to comment, don’t limit yourself to just your blog comments. It’s important that you also check your social media feeds and are responding to those comments as well. If you reader has taken the time to reach out, take the time to acknowledge this action. Readers will appreciate the gesture.
Checklist Item #7 – Check your analytics
After ensuring that your content stands up and that you have done all you can to promote it, check your analytics periodically to see what your audience thinks. If you see an increase in traffic for particular posts, try writing more about the subject. If, on the other hand, you see an increase in your bounce rate then you know to change tactics and try something new. Once you find the sweet spot between what you like to write about and what your readers like to read about, you are on the path to a fruitful career as a blogger.
Blogging Checklist Summary
By following these steps after you hit publish, you are ensuring that you have done your best to make your blog a success. If you are looking for more tips and tricks to make your blog a success, contact us today!
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