pre-publish optimization in WordPress

Are you search optimizing, or SEO’ing, your blog posts correctly in WordPress before you hit that Publish or Schedule button? Pre-publish optimization in WordPress is SO important, I can’t even stress how much. It’s almost a crime to spend all your time producing a wonderful piece of content around a focus keyword, just to let it get published without optimization in WordPress first. In today’s video, sit down with me at my computer and watch as I show you EVERY step I take before I publish a blog in WordPress, in my WordPress blog post optimization checklist for SEO. From how to switch to “text editor,” format your subheaders properly, to knowing if you should use H4s or not, to “should I worry about the Yoast smiley face color?”… I answer it all! ✅ Watch this detailed, practical video to learn how to optimize your blogs before you hit Publish or Schedule on WordPress. Time and time again, I see a clear pattern — #1 SEO rankings for blog posts that have a focus keyword comes from how much effort you put into your pre-publish optimization. The devil is in those details, and that couldn’t be truer for WordPress blog optimization. My 8-Step WordPress Blog Post Optimization Checklist for SEO (Video) If you follow each of the steps I share in this video, you’re much more likely to see results from your SEO content, especially if you publish regular blogs on WordPress, which is my personal favorite platform. I’ll even share with you an example of one of our content pieces, optimized following these exact steps, ranking at the top of Google for a major keyword in just 30 days. Let’s get going! [bctt tweet=”Before you hit that Publish button, are you sure that your blog post is in its perfect shape to climb up to the top spot? @JuliaEMcCoy teaches you how to optimize content with her 8-step WordPress blog post optimization checklist. ✔” username=”ExpWriters”] Make Sure Your Site Foundations Are Right (Pre-Optimization Step) Before we get into the checklist, a quick word of advice: It helps to have a fast, clean site. Just like you can’t build a strong house if your foundations are shaky, you simply cannot expect to publish an optimized post on an icky website and see great results. So, disclaimer: as you head into these tips, if you don’t have a strong, fast, secure, beautiful website, with page load speeds under 3 seconds per page, a beautiful, seamless experience for your end-user, you won’t see results. I recommend working with a top-rated freelance website developer to help get all your tech issues fixed, if you think you might have foundational site issues to fix first. Check out my recent Write Blog guide on how to rank in the top of Google. Let’s head over to my computer and I’ll show you, step-by-step, the 8 steps to use every single time you schedule a WordPress blog. First, here’s the checklist itself. How to SEO Optimize Blog Posts in WordPress: 8 Steps Load the Blog: Edit, Proofread, Upload All Corresponding Images Add & Proof-check Subheader Optimization for Readability and SEO Check All Links to Open in New Windows Include CTAs Add Easy One-Click Social Shares Add Meta Title and Description with Yoast Upload SEO Alt-Text Feature Images in the Right Spots Optimize Your Blog for Social Sharing with Yoast Additional Bonus Tips on SEO Optimization: The permalink (URL) for your blog should be your focus keyword. Keep it to five or less words!  Categorize your blog in one clear category. Avoid too many tags. 1-5 tags describing the topic, as long as they don’t duplicate the category, are fine. 1. Load the Blog: Edit, Proofread, Upload All Corresponding Images Load your blog in WordPress. Edit and proofread the content as you upload and insert any corresponding screenshots, images, etc. Images for blogs should be at most 1 megabyte, unless you’re uploading an infographic or a key high-res image that absolutely has to be at the resolution it was created at. When you upload the content, proofread it. You want a clean, error-free blog post for obvious reasons. (Google says the quality of your content directly impacts your rankings. (More on their EAT, or Expertise Authoritativeness, and Trust factors.) 2. Add & Proof-check Subheader Optimization for Readability and SEO Now that the post is in, you need to properly add subheaders — H2s, H3s. Adding subheaders and making sure the content is readable are the top two considerations so people (and search engines) can read and understand your post easily. Go in the Text editor of WordPress to make sure all H2s, H3s, etc. are coded correctly (use WordPress’s formatting!). Proof check them all on the Visual editor to make sure they transferred correctly. 3. Check All Links to Open in New Windows This is proven to significantly lower bounce rate, so, it’s worth the trouble! Make sure all your links are set to open in a new browser window. 4. Include CTAs Above all, avoid being annoying with your CTAs. Don’t put too many in, and don’t put them too high up. I’ve tested a variety of placements, and find that text CTAs are great for inner CTAs, and image CTAs best kept to 1, 2, or at most, 3 in one long-form blog. Always make sure your blog at least ends with a strong CTA that directs the reader to take action. 5. Add Easy One-Click Social Shares Know your platform, first of all. For us at the Write Blog, Twitter is a huge platform for engagement. We’ve kept up a Twitter chat, #ContentWritingChat, for years now on Twitter that has helped us grow a solid Twitter presence. So, knowing that Twitter is a hot platform, we’ve chosen to use a plugin that enables us to add “Click to Tweets” to every post — which we do. These are punchy phrases or takeaways from the blog that readers can share to Twitter with one click. We … Read more