You know your stuff. You could blog about what you do ‘til the cows come home. The problem is that there's never enough time to do it all well. What you need is a simple, step-by-step process for going from idea to publishing quality content without missing a beat.
Like anything you take a swing at, it’s the follow-through that sends your efforts into home-run territory. Don't let that blog post languish un-optimized on your website. If you’re a one-person marketing team, a solid work flow and checklist can help whittle down the challenge of keeping up with all the steps it takes for your blog to have an effective online presence.
Create a checklist for a solid work flow
Checklists are deceptively simple tools that can help you keep on top of the blogging, social media and marketing strategy aspects of your job. Here are some common blogging checklist steps to get you up and running quickly:
- Check concept alignment. Make sure it's a solid idea that aligns with your goal/campaign/mission.
- Choose target persona. Which audience is this for? What makes it compelling for them?
- Establish keyphrase – keyphrases help your SEO more than keywords. (“Women’s blue suede shoes” will land you more views than “shoes.”).
- Define angle: What’s your unique perspective that sets it apart from what others have written about your topic.
- What’s In It For Me (WIIFM): What’s the one tangible takeaway for your reader?
- Write at least 10 headlines, incorporating some or all of the primary keyphrase, if possible. Interesting ideas often emerge when you force yourself to keep trying different combinations of ideas and phrasing.
- Outline your main points.
- Get approval for idea, if needed.
- Edit/proof/review #1 – it’s best if you have a fresh set of eyes for this.
- Create graphics for header and body content.
- Develop social sharing graphics.
- Optimize for search engines.
- Edit/proof/review #2 once you have it formatted in your blogging software platform.
- Schedule publishing date(s).
- Write and schedule social media messages with varying text and images for each of your social media accounts. What you post on Facebook should be a little different from what you post in Twitter, etc. You'll also need to resize your graphic for each network.
Blog post sharing and promotion
In your blogging work flow, you will want to include steps for promoting your post after it is published. Which social media networks to use, the variety of messages and images, and the frequency of posting will vary based on your audience and social media community. We have created a handy 
that keeps us on track.
that keeps us on track.
Basics for search engine optimization
Some steps require specifications for images word counts, etc. Include them with the checklist or a reference page so all the information you need to publish the perfect blog post is always there to refer to if you need a quick refresher. Or, if you’re handing off all or part of that blog production task to someone else, they’ll be able to pick up where you left off and have all the info they need to keep it going. Here are the five SEO basics you want to include:
Title & subheads
Max: 60 characters (including spaces) for titles. Title appears on search engine results, so make sure it sums up your subject, angle, and WIIFM ("What's in it for me?"). Should contain keywords/phrases
Primary keyword phrase
Optimal: 3-7 words. The exact words your client or persona would type in to search for your content. If possible, it should appear in 5 places: 1) Headline 2) First paragraph 3) One subhead 4) Meta description 5) Image alt tag. Your post can have several keyword phrases. Identify the phrase that focuses on the heart of your content.
Meta description
Max: 160 characters (including spaces). Can determine “clickability” by potential readers. Expand upon what your title has promised.
Links
Min: 3. At least one each of internal links to elsewhere in the website where the blog appears, and one external link to a credible source. This strengthens your own credibility.
Image alt tags and filename
No character count limit, but don't go wild. It should contain a brief description of the image and your keyword/phrase if it’s relevant. Alt tags identify the nature or content of an image. This is helpful for those with accessibility needs to interpret what’s on the page. It also raises the search engine profile for your post. Use a descriptive image filename for better search engine optimization.
Social media graphics
If producing social media graphics is not part of your daily routine, you may also want to add the most common social media network image sharing sizes (width x height, in pixels) on the back of your checklist for ready reference. Keep in mind that these sizes do change from time to time, so periodically check in with each network to make sure your specs are still valid.
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Facebook (JPG): 1200 x 630
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Twitter (JPG, GIF, PNG): 440 x 220
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Google+ (JPG, GIF, PNG): 497 x 373
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Pinterest (JPEG, GIF, PNG): Board display: 222 x 150; Vertical: 236 x (scaled height)
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Instagram (JPG, PNG): 1080x1080
Make It a Tool That Works for You
Content marketing trends and algorithms are changing all the time. Best practices and specifications change as the internet evolves. Design your blog post workflow and checklist to enable you to implement your blogging strategies efficiently and consistently. Short of getting another staffer to help (and you know that’s not in the budget), use a workflow and checklist to give your next blog post its best chance to succeed.
