12 Items every blog post needs: The perfect post checklist

No matter what topic you’re writing about, you need a checklist to make sure that each post, is working it’s hardest on your page. Obviously, every post can’t be the best post ever. Those take tons of time to create, but even your quick posts should meet a certain standard on your blog. Here is your perfect post checklist.

12 Things Every Blog Post Should Have

 

1. Attention Calling Title

Your post title is so important. A great title begs to get clicked. It brings your readers to your site, and will keep them around clicking on all your other greatly titled posts!

You want to make strong and exciting statements, but also make sure you are able to deliver. No one likes click bait unless it’s really amazing. So if you do go click-baity, make sure you are writing something beyond helpful!

Related: How to write great blog post titles that boost traffic!

 

2. Post has a Clear Purpose

Your post needs to be valuable to your reader. If you can identify in only a couple of words what value you are providing, then good job! You’re doing it right.

The bottom line being, your post needs to be able to do one of three things:

• Solve a specific problem
• Be useful to your reader
• Be entertaining

If it doesn’t fall under one of these categories, you may need to ask yourself, why would anyone want to read this? Maybe your writing got away from you. You may have started with the intention of solving a problem, but ended talking about a completely different subject.

If this is the case, you need to change it to fit your reader’s needs. Your post needs to have a clear, defined reason for existing.

 

3. Green Light on Yoast

Yoast is an amazing tool and plug-in. Nearly every blogger I’ve ever talked to uses Yoast. It’s free (although there is a paid version, but not necessary) and does all the heavy SEO lifting for you.

Your posts all need the green light. If not, don’t expect to get any organic traffic to those posts.

 

4. Formatted for Mobile Devices

Most bloggers are working from a computer because it SO much easier. However, most people are reading your posts on a mobile device. For me personally, 90% of my traffic is on a mobile device. This means that very few of my readers ever see the full desktop version. It looks vastly different from the mobile version.

Your posts MUST look great on a mobile device. It doesn’t matter how great your posts looks on desktop, if only 5% of your readers ever see it there. You must be optimized from a cell phone perspective. Every time I hit publish, I check out how the post looks from my phone. You need to be doing this too!

Some tips for formatting for a cell phone, break up your texts to have lots of white space. Nobody likes to look at a huge block of text. It’s overwhelming, and most people like to skim. Make it super easy for your readers to find the exact information they are looking for, or they’ll leave your site before reading any of your great information.

 

5. Images with great alt text

Images are great in posts. They help break up your text further, can help to provoke emotion, and add a great opportunity to enhance your SEO with alt text. Make sure you are putting lots of great keywords in your alt texts. I always make it into a mini-paragraph, just in case one of my readers pin it.

The alt text shows up as part of the description on your pins in Pinterest.

 

6. External Links

External links can help you to show your readers examples and help Google figure out what your article is all about. When you have external links (That aren’t affiliate links) It helps to tell Google what type of information is useful for your readers, which helps Google figure out what you are all about too.

That way when someone goes looking for great info, they can turn them to you, because they know what your blog is about.

 

7. Internal Links

Internal links are great to help readers find more information about a specific subject you’ve already written about. They help keep readers interested in your site and increase your traffic at the same time.

Try your hardest to have a couple internal links that connect your posts together, to create a larger area of information on a subject your readers are interested in.

 

8. Appropriate Affiliate Links

Add in affiliate links that are appropriate and flow well in your post. Don’t go shoving them in there just because though, people don’t like that, they will notice and it will be obviously forced.

That is “bottom feeder” mentality, and your blog is way too good for that! Instead, add affiliate links that help your readers find what they need and are looking for.

Or ones that you think they would find useful. Always go with products you feel good about. Never promote something that you wouldn’t suggest to your closest loved ones. If it’s not good enough for them, it’s not good enough to suggest to your readers, and not good enough to promote on your blog.

 

9. Pin-worthy Images

Pinterest is my very favorite platform for showing my readers, how to get to me. It is one of the few places that will help get you both instant traffic, and passive traffic. Google traffic is a great long-term game plan but takes a while. Facebook & Twitter are great for instant boosts but are very rarely “long-term” traffic bringers.

Pinterest is a beautiful combination of both search engine and social media. I can create a post, and literally get hundreds of views on it with a few days if the pin is done really well, and happens to get seen by the right people. If you aren’t on Pinterest, you may be missing the boat.

One of the best courses I’ve taken (and also one of the most affordable) was this one by Eden Fried. She shows you step-by-step how to set up your account from the beginning and how to get off to a great start. She also talks about the importance of group boards. So much great info, and perfect for beginners new to Pinterest.

 

10. Email Opt-Ins

Building your email list should be a top priority. Your email list allows you to talk to your readers, even if your website went down, all your social media accounts vanished, etc.

People also tend to trust those more who they’ve given their email to. You build up a relationship with your readers and are able to help their problems better by understanding them more. Every post should have an obvious place for readers to sign up.

 

11. Call to Action

A call to action is an action you want your readers to take. This can be to pin a Pinterest worthy photo, a click to tweet, to subscribe to your email list. You need to directly tell your reader what you want them to do while reading your post, or after, depending on what it is your wanting.

 

12. Reviewed & Edited (No typos)

No one wants to read a sloppily edited post. Poor grammar and bad spelling make people click away, and makes you look unprofessional. Personally, I’m terrible at this. I always want to hit that publish button before I’ve done great editing.

Do it anyway! And get a program that helps you. I use Grammarly and it’s amazing! I use the free version, but the paid version is super tempting too.

P.S. Sign up and get the Perfect Blog Post checklist. Print it out, keep it at your desk, and make sure every post you write has everything you need!