21 Things To Do BEFORE PUBLISHING A New Blog Post [Pre-Post Checklist]

And the question; how to publish a blog on the internet that'll increase blog's traffic; you have done with writing quality content for all of your readers and going to publish a new blog post on your website, but wait... wait and check some important blog post checklist before publishing a blog post.

Things to do before publishing a blog post —
Blogger and online publishers used to search; what to do before publishing a blog post? How new posts up on the blog to drive traffic? Important things to do before hitting the publish button? Checklist before publishing a new blog post on the website, blog, or online article? And so on...

You are learning from how to create a blog, how to share your writings and how to make money blogging. But as like the IT task management people, you also need to manage all your tasks carefully ahead to publishing the articles online. And I'm sure, this article definitely helps you to complete the necessary checks just similar to the project task management software. Since you are managing your business blog sites, and unlike the SEO plugins works for the organic search engines, this blog post checklist will improve the method to build websites SEO strategy.

These are the top 15 marketing steps to take BEFORE you publish a new article. No need to remember all the things, just bookmark this page as a Blog Post Checklist - you can then able to open it and follow every check for your new blog post BEFORE you hit the PUBLISH button.

This page will work just like a blog post editing service that will not only help you to improve PageRank but also to drive massive targeted & organic traffic to your website.

Last time we have seen; On-Page SEO Checklist - Most IMP Factors That’ll Rank You TOP in SERP | Website Optimization. Search engine optimization is most important just like a published article on writing or developing a blog. Therefore, follow this SEO checklist that includes most IMP items you need to consider before publishing new blog posts.

Also like to read; Top 3 Key Reasons To Review, Edit & Republish Old Posts | Build Website Traffic

21 Essential Steps Before Hitting Publish

Table: Complete SEO Content Publishing Checklist (On-Page, Technical & Distribution)

No.	Checklist Item	Best Practice Refinement	Rationale (Why this level of detail matters)
1	Check post titles	Differentiate the Title Tag (appears in Google search results) from the on-page H1. Keep the title unique, emotional, and within 120–160 characters for better CTR.	Compelling titles increase click-through rate, a strong ranking factor for SEO.
2	Proper permalink or permanent links	Use short, keyword-focused URLs without dates or unnecessary numbers. Finalize the URL before publishing to avoid redirect issues later.	Clean, descriptive URLs improve SEO readability and link sharing across the web.
3	Have you added high paying keywords?	Include primary keywords in the title, URL slug, intro paragraph, and subheadings. Add related semantic keywords naturally throughout the article.	Strategic keyword placement signals content relevance and boosts visibility in high-value searches.
4	Check spellings	Perform a detailed proofreading pass to catch grammar, punctuation, and tone inconsistencies. Use tools like Grammarly, but rely on manual review for final polish.	Maintains professional quality, readability, and credibility with your audience.
5	Add images with ALT tag, description, caption	Use descriptive filenames and ALT text with keywords. Compress images under 100KB and add captions when relevant for accessibility and SEO.	Improves search engine visibility in image results and enhances page speed.
6	Add internal links or external links	Link to related internal pages and high-authority external resources. Test all links to ensure none are broken before publishing.	Healthy link structure boosts domain authority and improves user navigation.
7	Add DOFOLLOW tags to internal links	Ensure internal links are dofollow by default to pass link equity throughout your website.	Helps distribute SEO authority to related posts and strengthens internal ranking signals.
8	Add NOFOLLOW tags to external links	Use rel="nofollow" for outbound links that you don’t fully endorse or that are promotional.	Protects your site authority and prevents leaking SEO juice to low-quality or unrelated domains.
9	Add categories, tags, labels	Organize your post with relevant categories and tags to help both users and search engines understand your content hierarchy.	Improves site structure and internal linking while aiding in better content discoverability.
10	Add search META description	Write a compelling 120–160 character summary using active language and emotional triggers. Include your target keyword near the beginning.	Acts like an ad snippet in SERPs—strong descriptions can improve click-through rates significantly.
11	Proper H1, H2 tag, and bold, italic phrases	Ensure one H1 per page. Use H2/H3 for structure. Bold or italicize important keywords and phrases for readability emphasis.	Enhances scannability for users and improves topic comprehension for search crawlers.
12	Add jump-link	Use anchor links for long posts (e.g., "Back to Top" or "Jump to Section") to improve navigation.	Improves user experience and helps with SEO by increasing time-on-page metrics.
13	If required, add AD codes	Insert ad codes (AdSense, Ezoic, or Mediavine) only in approved placements that don’t disrupt content flow.	Proper ad placement maintains user engagement while optimizing monetization potential.
14	Add LOCATION to the post	Add geographical data or schema markup for location-based content. This improves local search visibility.	Essential for local SEO, helping users nearby discover your post or business more easily.
15	Add 'Call For Comment' (CTA)	Encourage engagement with clear CTAs like “Share your thoughts” or “Join the conversation.”	Increases interaction, builds community, and improves dwell time metrics.
16	Mobile Responsiveness Check	Preview your post on multiple screen sizes to confirm proper layout, font size, and image scaling.	Mobile-friendly content enhances user experience and ranks better on Google’s mobile-first index.
17	Fact-Checking & Source Credibility	Verify all facts, dates, and quotes with reliable, updated sources before publishing.	Strengthens E-E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) for better SEO credibility.
18	Media Licensing & Hotlinking Prevention	Host all media locally and ensure proper licenses for third-party images or videos.	Prevents broken content issues and copyright violations, ensuring long-term content stability.
19	Social Metadata (Open Graph/Twitter Card)	Set custom images, titles, and descriptions for social sharing via meta tags.	Ensures your content looks visually appealing on social media, increasing click and share rates.
20	Promotion and Distribution Copy Preparation	Prepare platform-specific text (email, LinkedIn, Facebook, X) with relevant hashtags and CTAs before publishing.	Immediate promotion maximizes visibility and initial traffic after launch.
21	Analytics and Conversion Tracking Setup	Set up Google Analytics, Search Console, and event tracking to monitor engagement, CTR, and conversions.	Data tracking ensures you measure performance and make informed SEO improvements.

21 To-Dos Before Publishing New Blog Post

Wait before pressing PUBLISH button, check your posts with the following most important things that will determine your article will be useful enough & truly great:

1. Check post titles.

Your post title should be catchy, attractive, beautiful, sticky and proper enough irresistible headline to convert your visitor to readers.

For make you more easy, you can check here; Top 10 Best Free Blog Post Title Generators To Drive Targeted Traffic To Your Website

2. Proper permalink or permanent links.

Your first 3 words of the link are the key points that decide post position in SERP.

For better understandings, you also like to know; Top 5 Features of High-Quality Backlinks That’ll Rank Your Website on the 1st Page of Google

3. Have you added high paying keywords?

Don't forget to add high paying CPC keywords as well as search related long tail keywords that will help you to bring more organic traffic.

You must check out; 9 Tips on How To Perform Keyword Research & Analysis For SEO To Drive Search Traffic | Beginners Guide

4. Check spellings.

Keep an eye on spellings. Regular spellcheck, grammar and content formatting are most important for the better online reputation.

No long paragraphs and no short length content posts - keep these points in your mind.

Recently I have published a separate on writing blog pages; Top 10 Tips For Writing A Successful Blog Post For Bloggers

5. Add images with ALT tag, description, caption.

Don't forget to add the required attributes to featured images & links as well. Also, you need to add the caption for indexing your images.

For better understandings you need to follow; Top 15 SEO Image Optimization Tips for Search Engine Traffic

6. Add internal links or external links.

Whenever there is a need you need to add inbound/internal links, this will surely help for better page views. Make sure all links are working properly. You can set external links to open in a new tab in SEO point of view.

You must aware about; Top 9 Best Link Building Tools for Better SEO | Improve Your Search Rankings

7. Add DOFOLLOW tags to internal links.

Don't forget to add DOFOLLOW tags for internal links.

RECOMMENDED: 10 Proven Ways To Increase Domain Authority (DA) Fast in Your Blogging Niche

8. Add NOFOLLOW tags to external links.

Don't forget to add NOFOLLOW tags for external links.

9. Add categories, tags, labels.

Your post should be categorised with proper tags or labels for better navigation of new readers. This will improve user experience and so page views.

Do you know; List of Google “Stop Words” To Avoid // PRO SEO TIPS

10. Add search META description.

You need to add proper and convincing meta description which will bring the user that searching on Google to directly on your page.

Also read: Online META Tag Generator #1 Free SEO Tool For Website | SEO Meta Description Tool

11. Proper H1, H2 tag, and bold, italic phrases.

Use heading and sub-heading from <H1> to <H3> tags to break the contents wisely. This will help search engine to prioritise your title, links to determine your content properly. Whenever you need use bold and italic phrases to get more attention to those keywords that describe the subject of the post. This will help to improve readability & SEO in On-Page web Optimization.

UPDATED: Hashtag Engine Optimization [HEO]: Everything You Want to Know // Future of SEO

12. Add jump-link.

Insert jump link properly since most of the template not support auto link.

If you are using Adsense; you need to know How 10 Things Will Increase Your Adsense CTR | Improve CPC & CPM | CTR Optimization

13. If required, add AD codes.

In some cases, plugins help to place ads in content automatically, but it works only when we placed ad codes properly into the content.

Beware; Top 15 Biggest Blogging Mistakes To Avoid

14. Add LOCATION to the post.

If you are driving traffic from country targeting audience then you need to add proper location to each post.

To know more about country targetting I have a separate article; Drive Geo-targeted Website Traffic To Increase Domain Authority & Adsense Earnings | Build Website Traffic

15. Add 'Call For Comment' (CTA).

Call to action (CTA) - Last but not least, after each post you need to add some lines at the bottom of the post that will encourage readers to comment and call your regular readers to post their reviews via comments. This will improve user engagement on your site.

If you have time, read; 20 Lessons I’ve Learned from 10 Years Of Blogging

16. Mobile Responsiveness Check

Conducting a detailed mobile responsiveness check is important for ensuring that your posts produce an optimal user experience on mobile devices.

Start by visually checking and previewing each post on various smartphones and tablets to examine how well the content adapts to different screen sizes. You may also like to read; How to Build Responsive Blogger Template CSS: Advanced Tutorial | Responsive Web Development

Pay close attention to the formatting, as it should be easy to read and navigate on smaller displays. Examine the visuals to confirm that images and videos are properly scaled and do not distort or lose quality.

Additionally, make sure that your calls to action (CTAs) are clearly visible and easily clickable, encouraging user interaction without any frustration. Given that most users access content through their mobile devices and that search engines are shifting towards mobile-first indexing, prioritising mobile responsiveness is essential for both user satisfaction and effective search visibility.

17. Fact-Checking & Source Credibility

It is essential to perform detailed and careful checks on all names, dates, numbers, and statistics presented in any content. Each declaration posted should be confirmed by authoritative sources that are both credible and current, ensuring that the information shows the latest available data.

This practice not only helps verify the accuracy of the content but also plays an important role in establishing the principles of E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness). You must check; Increase Domain Authority Quickly: 10 Ways to Boost Ahref DA in Your Niche

By prioritising reputable sources and strictly validating information, we can improve the reliability and integrity of communications, promoting more incredible trust with our audience.

18. Media Licensing & Hotlinking Prevention

It is essential to totally verify the usage rights or licenses for all images and media content you plan to use on your website or digital platforms. This includes confirming that you have the proper permissions to use these assets, whether they are imported from stock libraries, Creative Commons materials, or original content created by yourself or your team.

You may also like to read; Understanding: Types of Image License Explained

Equally important is the practice of checking whether all images and media files are uploaded directly to your own server. Avoid hotlinking, which refers to linking to images or media files that are hosted on an external source, such as a Google Doc or another website.

Hotlinking can lead to broken links if the external file is deleted, moved, or modified, resulting in missing media that detracts from the user experience. Furthermore, hotlinking can violate copyright agreements and may lead to additional legal complications. Always ensure that you have a local copy of your images and media files to maintain the integrity and functionality of your site.

19. Social Metadata (Open Graph/Twitter Card)

To improve the visibility and engagement of your content when shared on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, it is necessary to properly configure specific metadata tags, namely Open Graph and Twitter Card. These tags show how your link is shown in terms of preview images, titles, and descriptions.

1. Open Graph Tags: These tags are crucial for how your content appears on Facebook and other platforms that use the Open Graph protocol. Important tags include:
   • - og:title: This is the title that will appear in the link preview. Ensure it is catchy and accurately reflects the content of the post.
   • - og:description: This tag provides a brief summary of the post. Aim for a concise yet informative description that engages readers.
   • - og:image: The image displayed in the preview should be high quality and relevant to the content, as visual elements significantly attract clicks.
   • - og:url: This should point to the exact URL of the content being shared, ensuring that it directs users to the right page.
2. Twitter Card Tags: Similar to Open Graph, Twitter Cards allow you to control how your content appears on Twitter. Key tags to configure include:
   • - twitter:title: Similar to og:title, this is the title displayed in the tweet. Keep it aligned with your brand voice.
   • - twitter:description: Use this tag for your description; it should capture attention in a limited character count.
   • - twitter:image: Select an engaging image that represents your content well, as it enhances the likelihood of click-throughs.
   • - twitter:card: This tag defines the type of card to display (e.g., summary, summary_large_image). Choose the one that best suits your content type.

You must follow; Add All Open Graph Tags (Schema Markup) To Your Website To Boost Your Social Shares [Blogger/WordPress]

After setting up these metadata tags, using a validation tool is crucial to ensure that everything displays correctly across various platforms.

Tools like Facebook’s Sharing Debugger and Twitter’s Card Validator can help you view how your posts will look when shared, allowing you to make adjustments as needed.

Thorough validation helps maximise your click-through rates (CTR) by ensuring an appealing and informative presentation when users encounter your link on social media.

20. Promotion and Distribution Copy Preparation

Launchpad Preparation: Before hitting publish, the promotion strategy must be ready.

Draft and schedule all platform-specific copy and visuals (e.g., email newsletter text, social media posts for LinkedIn/Twitter/Facebook) required for the initial distribution. This ensures immediate maximum reach upon launch.  

21. Analytics and Conversion Tracking Setup

Measurement Mandate: Ensure that all necessary tracking is configured for the new post.

This includes confirming that analytics tools (like Google Analytics) are active and, critically, generating and applying UTM codes to all external promotional links (social media, email) so you can accurately measure which channel drove the traffic and conversions.

Bottom Line

This is a quick checklist and I must say you need to consider these things before publishing new blog posts.

If anything I have missed out, or if you want to add something to this list, you can share it via comments, I would like to add it directly to this list.