How to Plan your Blog Posts Without Forgetting Anything Important

You have a lot to keep in mind when planning your blog posts. Keeping track of all of the necessary components of your blog post is really hard.  I understand your struggle. That’s why I am sharing my blog writing process today to help you plan your blog posts and remember everything important.

Planning and reviewing your content for SEO, readability, and marketing purposes are crucial to your post’s success. In this post, I’m going to discuss my process and how you can keep track of it all.

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Plan your Blog Posts

Planning is the most effective way to keep all of your ducks-in-a-row. If you start writing without a plan, there is no telling where you will end up. You may begin with a blog post about dogs and end up discussing elephants. Seriously, planning keeps you on track. That is why it is so important to plan your blog posts before you write.

Brainstorming

Your first step is to get your thoughts out of your head and on paper or computer. Once your thoughts are visual, it is easier to create a game plan.

Write down the subject of your post and potential keywords. Afterward, write down points that you want to make in the post. This will help you to outline your post so that you have direction and don’t get sidetracked.

Outlining

Outlining is the process of organizing your brainstorming. When you plan your blog posts it is important to outline the post before you begin writing. This will help you to perform your research and prepare all of the components of your blog post.

To help you out, I have created a document and included multiple checklists to help you prepare for writing your blog post. In order to download this free document, enter your name and email address below. You will be sent a link to download the checklist.

 

 

If you are concerned about your privacy, you can review my privacy policy. I will not share your email address and respect your privacy and will not send you spam! To check out the download before you signup, click here to preview exactly what the list contains.

Plan your Content

Content is everything in the blogging world. Yes, you will attract some readers with mediocre content, but they will not stay. When you plan your blog posts, consider SEO, readability, and marketing to increase pageviews, engagement, and sales.

Planning for SEO

Once you outline your post, plan your blog posts with SEO in mind. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization in mind. SEO will help search engines find your blog when someone searches for it. This creates organic traffic and will improve your search engine rankings so you have more visitors and more pageviews.

If you need more details about what SEO entails, check out my previous post, “How to Use SEO to Drive Traffic to Your New (or Old) Website.” It breaks down the process and all of the things you need to consider when writing your blog post. All of these components are also included in the “Blog Post Checklists,” as mentioned above.

Another good post you can read is from Corinne of skinnedcartree.com. She breaks the SEO subject down to a few manageable parts that are easy to utilize. Some of the takeaways from Corinne’s post are to remember to create high-quality content and use keywords. Read her post for more details.

It will make or break your blog! Other components such as utilizing keywords and link building are also included in the “Blog Post Checklists.”

 

Readability

Readability factors into both your engagement and your SEO rankings. Yoast SEO is the go-to source for reviewing and editing your posts. In this article, Yoast discusses the importance of readability for your blog.

If a new visitor clicks on your blog and only visits the first page and doesn’t stay very long, you must improve readability. Technology continues to evolve to be more mobile and convenient. This means that many of your readers will be using a mobile device on your website.

When people are in a hurry or checking out your post while waiting in line at the grocery store, they will skim the text. When you plan your blog posts, it is important to consider this. Short, concise sentences, short paragraphs, all contribute to readability.

Readability directly impacts your engagement. You want your readers to read your article and stay on your website as long as possible. Improving your readability will improve both engagement and sales.

Before You Publish

One of the checklists in the free “Blog Post Checklists” covers what you should check for before you hit “Publish.” Many people skip this process to save time. This is a huge mistake that you will pay for in the long run.

Links that don’t work, typos, and other errors impact your readability and credibility. If you don’t review these items, your readers will think less of you. When you plan your blog posts, include error checking, a grammar check, and spell check as part of the process.

Marketing

You want people to read your blog posts, right? The only way that you can ensure that will happen is to market your post. In my post “Marketing Your Blog for the New Blogger: What You Should (and Shouldn’t) Do” I discuss this in greater detail.

You don’t have to spend a lot of money to market and advertise your blog. Email marketing, SEO, and social media will all help you to do that. The good news is, these are all free and easy to use.

Pinterest and Facebook groups are a goldmine for bloggers. If you want to market your blog, share it in groups. Remember to interact with others and return the favor. Social media is all about networking, sharing, and learning. Groups and boards are great places to do that.

Get the Most from Every Post

To get the most out of your blog, you should plan your blog posts. A little planning goes a long way to ensuring that your blogging venture is successful.

Sign up for the email list below or above and receive your free copy “Blog Post Checklists.” These four, printer-friendly checklists include all of the key ingredients to creating the perfect blog post. It will help you to improve your SEO, increase engagement, and improve pageviews. What do you have to lose?

If you have other suggestions, please feel free to leave them in the comments below. Thank you for reading! I