Last Updated on May 4, 2020 by ellduclos

What to do Before and After Publishing a Blog Post

A question that I see being asked in my group more often than not is, “What do you do before and after you publish a post?” It seems like a simple question. In the beginning of my blogging journey I used to think, I’ll just publish this post and the traffic will come. WRONG. There is a lot of behind the scenes work that goes into growing your blog traffic and making sure your blog posts are getting the attention they deserve!!! Today I am going to answer this question the best I can, telling you EVERYTHING that I before and after publishing a new post on my blog.

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Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase via my links I receive a commission at no additional cost to you! read my disclosure here.

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What to do Before you Publish a Blog Post

First, let’s talk about what you should do before you publish a blog post. This is important! You want to make sure you are hitting all your boxes! Be sure to write this down, like a “check list” if you would.

Proofread

This is common sense for the most part, but it is important. I even like to read my posts out loud to myself to catch the little mistakes. But I will be honest, I am not perfect and I don’t catch everything. I have had many in the past correct my typos etc. Sh*t happens. We are only human. As long as you try, that’s all that matters.

Check Your SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

In the long run, SEO will play a HUGE part in your blog traffic. If you set up your blog up for SEO perfection from the start, life will be much easier. I made the mistake of not focusing on SEO right away, and going back to fix &  improve 100+ blog posts is quite daunting. Do yourself a solid and try to practice good SEO from the start.

You can use YOAST SEO which is a wordpress plug-in as a guide to see if your post is optimized for SEO or not. There is a lot that goes into SEO and I am NO PRO when it comes to SEO but I do know some basics.

1. Interlink your content. If your current post relates to a previous post that you published, interlink that previous post into your current post. You can even do something like “RELATED: (previous post)” and link it that way. OR you can naturally tie it into your blog post and make specific words the “link back” to the previous post. (confusing but hope that makes sense!) Interlinking is super important! It also keeps your old evergreen content alive!
2. KEYWORDS. Choose your “keywords” and spread them out throughout your post. You want keywords in your title, the first paragraph, scattered throughout the post, & you should utilize headings and include keywords in your H2 headings.
3. All images should have keywords in the alt text. If you upload an image to your blog post, edit the “alt text” and include keywords.
4. Make sure your images are compressed and not OVERSIZED. There are plugins like “WPSMUSH” that will help with this.
5. Have fast site speed! You can check you site speed here. You want to make sure your site speed is fast because no one has time to wait for pages to load. You ideally want to score an 80 or above on the site speed test! Being self hosted with a good host will also help with this issue! Siteground is actually known to have super fast servers! Not to mention, if you aren’t self hosted you probably can’t use the awesome plug-ins I recommended! So get off that “free” platform and get to self hosting! Site ground starts at $3.95 a month and they truly are the best!!!

There’s some other things that help with SEO but the YOAST SEO plug in will make it super easy to help guide you through improving your post so you get that green light!!!

Add All Affiliate Links that Apply

If you are trying to make your blog a career, it’s time to get into monetizing! Even if your blog isn’t “huge” yet, you can still use affiliate links! There are programs out there like ShopStyleCollective & ShareASale that can get you approved for affiliate links. Once you are approved learn strategies to increase your sales! Before you publish a blog post, make sure you attached all your affiliate links that relate to your post! This will help you make that money.

 

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Make Sure to Have a Pinnable Image

It’s so important to have a “Pinnable” image attached to your blog. Maybe you are thinking, what the heck is a “Pinnable” image? GOOD QUESTION!

If you have been following me for a while, then you know how much I LOVE Pinterest. Without Pinterest my blog traffic wouldn’t be where it is today and I wouldn’t have a full time job blogging. The power really is in Pinterest!

If you think about it, Pinterest is like a free marketing tool for bloggers. Almost every pin on Pinterest leads to a blog post!! It’s a bloggers dream. There are ways to use Pinterest to explode your blog traffic!!! I never thought it was possible until I did it myself. I created a course for Boss Girl Bloggers‘ members that goes over EVERYTHING (how to create “Pinnable” images, strategies to grow your blog traffic through Pinterest, how to increase affiliate sales through Pinterest, how to properly set up your Pinterest to benefit your blog and so much more.)

It just went through a huge revamp and you can purchase it HERE if you are wanting to utilize Pinterest to benefit your blog + biz.

BUT -> Having a “Pinnable” image that is sized “600 x 900” or “736 x 1100” is ideal. This way when someone reads your post and enjoys it, they have an image they can share on Pinterest that will hopefully help bring you traffic!

My posts that don’t have “Pinnable” images receive less traffic than my posts that do contain “Pinnable” images.

Side Note: ** I use Canva to create my “Pinnable” images!! They even have Pinterest templates that are already sized perfectly! Super easy.

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Related: How to get your Pin to go Viral

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Insert Subscribe Form

I like to make sure that I have a subscribe form at the end of each blog post! This allows my readers to easily subscribe if they enjoyed my post and want to stay up to date with my blog. Growing your e-mail list is so important! Just think, if one day social media disappeared, you would still have your subscribers e-mails to inform them of new posts rather than only relying on social media as a form of contact!

If you are in need of an e-mail list builder, I seriously recommend Mailerlite! They make it SO easy to create e-mail campaigns and opt-ins with “drag and drop” templates. I tried out MailChimp and it was to complex for my brain. Mailerlite is also free for up to 1,000 subscribers! WINNING.

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What to do After Publishing a Blog Post

Now that we know what to do BEFORE publishing a blog post, it’s time to talk about what to do AFTER you publish a blog post. This part is important because it’s all about marketing your blog post to receive the MOST engagement and traffic.

First Let your Subscribers Know

First things first, you want to let your subscribers know about your new blog post. Since they are “exclusive”, they should definitely be the first ones to know about anything new and exciting! If you publish a new blog post frequently, then I would refrain from e-mailing them every time you post. Instead, you could create a weekly newsletter that informs your e-mail list of all the new articles you published that week! Also mention any exciting news you might have to share! E-mailing your list too often can get annoying and may lead to a lot of “unsubscribes” Once or twice a week isn’t bad! (This is just my opinion)

Utilize Facebook to Share

I love using Facebook to try and promote my new blog posts! I have my own FB community of over 30,000 female entrepreneurs and bloggers where I will my new posts if it could benefit my members! Having my own FB group really does help to connect with my audience on a more personal level and has helped to speed up my blogging journey.

I truly recommend trying to build and grow your own FB community if you can! I have an article all about how I created and grew my community to over 30,000 members in under a year! If I can do it, so can you!

BESIDES HAVING YOUR OWN GROUP – definitely join other groups and try to utilize their engagement threads. There are so many FB groups out there who have weekly “blog post share” threads. These threads allow you to share your new blog post and exchange comments with other bloggers to help each other grow! Participate in these groups once or twice a day. You can set about 30 mins at the end and beginning of each day to try and use the groups to increase your traffic.

Another tip is: If you are a part of a group and a member asks a question, you can share your blog post in reply if it could help to answer their question! Don’t just drop the link and run though… Write a few sentences, be friendly, try to make a connection and then share the link! Personal connections go a long way!

OTHER THAN FB GROUPS – Share your blog post on your FB biz page!!! If you haven’t created a FB biz page yet, definitely do so! This is separate from your actual FB. Here is my FB biz page as an example. Everytime I publish a new post, I share it on my FB biz page.

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Make a Tweet

Twitter is surprisingly really great for the blogging community! I love tweeting when I have a new blog post! You can also use hashtags and tag feature accounts who will retweet your tweet and get your blog post in front of more eyes. I know not many love twitter, but if you have a blog, you should have a twitter! Social media is your friend when you are a blogger, as much as you may hate it.

Share about it on Instagram

I won’t say I have been “loving” Instagram lately, but it does it’s job when it wants to! When you publish a new blog post, create an Instagram post that directs your audience to the “link in your bio” so they can check out your new post!

Many will share a pretty image and utilize their caption to direct their audience to their blog post! Since you can’t link in Instagram captions, you should put the new blog post link in your “Instagram bio” and direct your audience to the “link in your bio” if that makes sense!

I use Linktree since Instagram only allows you to have ONE link in your bio. Linktree will allow you to use multiple links and then you just copy your “Linktree link” and place that in your bio instead. Here is my Instagram so you can see what I mean!

ALSO – Share about it in your Instagram stories!! Whenever you publish a new blog post you should let your Instagram audience know by sharing about it on your stories as well!

If you are a business Instagram account with 10k + followers, you can utilize the “swipe up” feature which allows your audience to simply “swipe up” to check out the blog post rather than having to go to your Instagram bio.

Add it to Pinterest & Schedule it!

Yes, Pinterest again! Once you publish your new blog post you should share it to Pinterest using your “Pinnable” image! The thing about Pinterest is, you can’t just share it to one board and hope for traffic! That’s where my Pinterest strategies come in to play! You want to be sharing it to multiple boards and group boards!!! Since we are only human and don’t have all the time in the world to be pinning on Pinterest, use a scheduling tool to make life easier!

Once I share it to one board on Pinterest I will then schedule that pin from Pinterest to Tailwind and let Tailwind do the Pinning!

I absolutely swear by Tailwind! After one month of using Tailwind Plus, my blog traffic increased from 5k monthly to over 25k monthly! (now I get 60,000-80,000 monthly blog views) I was shocked and disappointed in myself because I should have used Tailwind long long ago! They have a free trial but in my honest opinion, the free trial gets you no where compared to their paid services! The free trial only let’s you schedule 100 pins then it’s up. That isn’t enough to give you real results.

If Tailwind and Pinterest sound like a foreign language to you, NO WORRIES. My course goes over ALL of that, including how to use Tailwind properly so you can increase your blog traffic and Pinterest too!

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Well, that covers it all! This is exactly what I do whenever I publish a new blog post. I hope you found it helpful!!!

& as always, subscribe if you enjoy reading my nonsense! Let me know in the comments if you have any other tips OR if any of these tips work for you too!