Before you hit Publish: a list of things you forgot to check
A critical part of Content Marketing happens before you ever hit the “Publish” button. Forgetting to check the title tag, add keywords, assign a category, or a list of other things within your post content can hurt your efforts in effective content marketing.
So here is a list of things you should remember to check in your post editor before you publish the content:
Proofread the Post Content
This is A#1 priority! Content marketing is all about content!
There’s nothing worse than publishing a great new post only to be told later by a reader that you misspelled a word, used an improper contraction (it’s vs. its), or used the wrong word entirely (their vs. there). Spell check is one thing, but that doesn’t always catch poor grammar in your content and it certainly doesn’t catch every mistake in the post. Proofread it yourself! Fix any errors before you publish that post! It’s difficult to be an authority in your niche when you have glaring errors in your content.
Have you validated that links throughout your post content are correct and valid? What about keywords? Does your content utilize keywords for effective content marketing?
Assign a Category and Tags
This one gets me quite often. Don’t forget to give your post a category, otherwise it will be assigned to the default category which may not always make sense when related to the content. You don’t want content about fishing to be categorized under political rants, do you?
If you use tags, be sure to tag the post appropriately. Effective use of post tags can help your efforts in content marketing.
Social Tags
Content marketing can be is dependent on effective social networking. Depending on your blog and your plugins, you may have a number of social elements in your post editor window. Verify that all of these are correct. For me, that means associating Google+ with my post, checking that social sharing buttons are enabled, and that twitter will be notified when I hit publish. Double check those post tags because those will be your hashtags. They should relate to the post content.
I once heard Brian Clark say, “If they’re not finding you in social and search, then you’re not in the game.” So check those social tags. And this leads to the next thing to check – Search Engine Optimization:
SEO Settings
Content Marketing is essentially SEO. If you use an SEO plugin or have SEO embedded in your framework, verify you have all the SEO elements completed. Does your post have a custom title tag? How about a meta description? Keywords? Robot meta settings? Any other content in this area?
If you use Content Marketing software, you need to make sure the Search Engine Optimization elements are complete before you can do your post content evaluation.
Build a Checklist Using Your Post Editor
Depending on your theme and plugins, there could be any number of other details. Go through your post editor window and make note of any custom elements that you have.
I recommend creating a content marketing checklist. I have a generic document that I print of a stack of blank copies of. It has a section for post title and then a checklist of items to review. I check off each and then schedule the post for publishing using the Editorial Calendar. That helps me remember to get everything checked before I hit publish. And I keep a section at the end for after publish notes. This allows me to make note of anything that I missed that came up later, various recommended edits, etc.
I hope this helps give you some ideas.
What are some things that you do with your pre-post checklist?
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