9 Blog Optimization Steps You Should Never Skip

A blog is so much more than words. It’s an opportunity to educate, sell, establish your thought leadership, boost SEO, and drive website traffic. However, in order to accomplish all of these things, specific steps must be followed. Miss one, and your blog could underperform, or you could be left without the data and insight needed to help successfully target and structure future posts.

For the sake of this list, let’s assume that you’ve already done some keyword research, selected a topic, and written an amazing piece of content. Now, let’s dive into the exact steps you’ll need to take to make that content successful:

Steps to Optimize & Publish a Blog

1.  Run a grammatical check of your blog.

This can be done through a platform like Grammarly or by using the editor function in Microsoft Word. Use these tools to find missed typos, grammatical errors, overused words, or issues with sentence structure.

2.  Ensure your targeted keyword appears in the title, subheaders, and body of the blog.

Your writing should flow naturally. Always remember that you are writing for a person, not a computer. That being said, ensuring that variations of your keywords appear throughout your writing will help Google better understand the intent of your content.

3.  Use subheadings to separate blog content.

Subheadings are a great way to help organize your content and improve the reader experience. Labeling your subheadings as H2s or H3s will also help search engines recognize them as important elements that can help users understand the purpose of the page. (Note – Your blog title should always be the H1 of your page. You should only have one of these.)

4.  Include internal and external links.

Don’t leave your content on an island by itself! By linking to reputable outside sources and relevant internal pages of your own site, you are giving Google more clues as to the topic and validity of your blog. You are also providing a boost to your other pages.

An important note here – Your anchor text should be a searchable term that is related to the content of the page it is linking to. Linking the text “click here” only serves to tell search engines you want to rank for the search term, “click here.” Be specific! Long-tail keywords are your friend, whether in page titles or link text.

5.  Add a call-to-action.

Never forget that your content is a lead conversion opportunity. Determine which stage of the buyer’s journey your blog falls into and give your reader an appropriate next step via a clear and concise call-to-action.

6.  Add imagery.

Every blog should have at least one associated image, but you can always include more or even add elements like infographics or video. These features make your content easier to read, more visually appealing, and give it a search boost. Just ensure that all images are labeled with alt image tags that mirror your targeted keywords.

7.  Include a descriptive meta description.

Think of a meta description as your elevator pitch. In just 150 characters, you should be able to tell readers what your content is about, why it's relevant to them, and what they can expect if they click through.

8.  Give it one last check.

Before clicking that publish button, take one last look at your blog. Check the title and subheadings for keywords and the body for appropriate links and any grammatical errors. Ensure all links are working and images are tagged. You should also tag the blog appropriately and use an appropriate URL slug.

9.  Track your keywords.

If you are using a platform like SEMrush for position tracking, be sure to enter your blog’s keywords and variations before publishing. This will allow you to track your performance for these searches and identify the impact your content has on your rankings.

Content creation requires consistency, but even if you are blogging weekly, you are unlikely to see results if you aren’t following the appropriate optimization steps. While you may not see immediate results, using these best practices with every new post will reap major rewards in the long run.