Learn from the Best
The Best in Blogging series gives you proven strategies from top industry experts.
Tell me if this has happened to you.
You’ve chosen the newest, the simplest, the most scrumptious recipe. You’ve purchased all the ingredients. You start to prepare the dish, already glowing in the inevitable satisfied compliments of your family.
And then you realize that in your haste to begin, you’ve skipped some trivial little step that isn’t really trivial and could well derail your entire fantasy of happy family mealtime.
It’s a common problem, and it’s not restricted to kitchen prep. Cooking up a blog post that meets both the algorithms of search engine bots and the personal tastes of human readers is no mean feat, and it’s easy to press Publish excitedly only to realize that the post has no Featured Image or that you’ve misspelled the word boil at least twice (it could happen).
To avoid making the little mistakes that can detract from your blog, it’s a good idea to keep a checklist on hand that’ll serve as a reminder of each ingredient that makes up a successful blog post.
#1 Did I delight my readers?
Just like a favorite meal, your blog posts can provide both nourishment and delight to your readers, so begin each post with a strategy to do just that. Ask what your readers need and what they want before you even begin writing. Be sure to include dazzling photos of your dishes to further inspire readers.
#2 Did I appeal to robots?
It may not be possible to tempt robots with the same whiff of apple pie that wins readers, but they have their weaknesses, too. Choose long-tail keywords to catch the attention of passing bots, and use them throughout your posts from the title to the alt-tags.
#3 Is the post easy to read?
Organizing posts with an introductory summary, precise headings, and easy-to-understand navigation helps both readers and robots. You should also check for spelling and grammatical errors that undermine your message, and be sure that you’ve used the simplest language possible to reach the broadest audience.
#4 Did I respect the tech?
A big part of the success of any blog is the careful attention to technical details. Remember to include meta descriptions, tags, categories, and alt- tags for images. Set your featured image and make sure that your URL is clean, short, and contains your keyword.
#5 Is my plug-in plugged in?
Hopefully, you’ve got a high-powered recipe plugin that makes it easy for readers to save and share your recipe. Make it just as easy for them to get there quickly by adding a Jump to Recipe link at the beginning of your post, and keep your recipes looking as fresh as the rest of your blog by adding an image.
What pre-post blog publishing ingredient do you tend to forget?
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