What goes through your head just before you hit “publish” on your blog posts? Anything? We all have different little checklists we go though and routines we’ve established, whether we realize it or not!
Since quality should rank pretty high up there on our goals for each post, it can be helpful to try and answer a few questions for yourself before you content gets shared around the Internet. From staying “on brand” to watching for little details, here’s a list of questions (11, to be exact) you might want to ask yourself before your next post goes live!
1. What is the point of this post?
Every post should have a point, a reason for being, a goal to accomplish in your editorial calendar. Is it answering a question, fulfilling a need, providing entertainment or advice? The “why” is always important!
2. Who is my reader, and will he or she like this?
Remind yourself of your audience, picture your typical reader in your head and ask yourself if that person would enjoy or benefit from this content.
3. Will this post title make people want to click-through and read?
How you title your posts is so important. Think about keywords you could use, enticing adjectives, questions you could ask, it is a “how to” or a numbered list – these are all attention grabbers for people on social media.
4. Have I used keywords in my headline, tags and/or content to help search engines find my post?
Keywords are a blogger’s not-so-secret weapon. Use them wisely!
5. Have I included affiliate links where possible?
Odds are you’re probably thinking about how to include your affiliate links from the beginning, but if you’re working on a deadline these little things can slip by, so just remind yourself to double check.
6. Are all my links working?
If you’re linking out to products, other sites, your photographer or an image source, double check each hyperlink is working correctly.
7. Are all of my photos sized and formatted correctly?
It’s always a good idea to preview your post before it goes live, just to make sure everything looks the way you want it to.
8. Have I read this over for spelling and grammar slips?
We have a few common grammar errors to watch out for here, they’re easy to miss and we all make them!
9. Are there brands I can mention in my social media promotions?
Make sure to link out and “@” the brands you mention in your posts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc!
10. Is this post timely?
Content that is timely will almost certainly gain more traction in your networks than content that isn’t tied to a season, holiday, current trend, event or recently popular cultural topic (celebrity, travel, politics, etc). If it isn’t is there a way you could work in a timely element?
11. Would I read this content myself?
Well, do you? Putting your own personal stamp of approval on each and every post you publish is the most important step you’ll take. Producing content you are proud of and happy with is the best thing you can do for your blog.
I realize this now, but I ask myself a lot of these questions before I publish something.
But all of the are important!
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