<aside> 👋 Hey everyone, Tracey from Contentment here. This is the blog publishing checklist I’ve used for the last 8 years as I upload content to the web. Remember, how you upload content into your CMS is critically important for SEO. Following this checklist will make sure you get the details right, every time. Consistency matters.

Also, if someone forwarded this guide to you, be sure to sign up for my newsletter by clicking here.

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• [ ] Ensure the piece is at least an A- on Clearscope –– no matter what the piece is.

  • [ ] Not an A? Consider targeting a different keyword or key phrase.

• [ ] Resize all images to at MOST 1,000px width. Size should be less than 50kb

• [ ] Tinfy-ify all images on TinyPNG or TinyJPG and download.

• [ ] Rename and save all images on your computer following the naming convention in the Google Doc.

  • [ ] If there isn’t a naming convention in the Google doc, ping your manager to figure one out.

  Important: You can improve your Clearscope score based on how you name images. It’s a good way to get a leg up, but you have to be detailed about it. A lot of folks skip this step.*

• [ ] When uploading content to Wordpress, you want to first use the Doc to Markdown add-on on Google Docs. Click HTML and then copy and paste the HTML text into the TEXT side of Wordpress, not the visual side. From there, click on the visual side to finalize editing. This removes formatting properly from Google Docs.

• [ ] Fill in image meta-data ––all of it. For every image.

  • [ ] This includes alt text. Please make this a readable sentence in the case the image does not load or if someone needs to understand the image without seeing it. Here is more information on best accessibility practices on the web.

• [ ] Upload the meta-image to the piece.

  • [ ] Once you publish, use Twitter card validator to make sure the image is pulling through properly. Twitter is always the most finicky of the social platforms for me…so, if it works here, it will work anywhere.

• [ ] Upload the meta-title

  • [ ] This should be in the Google Doc. If it is not, let your manager know and together, figure one out.
  • [ ] The meta title should not be the title of your article. This is a shooter, optimized headline for click rates on Google Search. Consider this organic ad space.
  • [ ] Note that Google changes meta-titles if they do not accurately represent the content. Please be a good user of the web, and use meta-titles that are relevant*

• [ ] Upload the meta-description

  • [ ] The meta-description is at most two sentences and should further encourage readers on Google to click into the article. Consider this organic ad space.
  • [ ] This should be in the Google doc. If it is not, let your manager know and together, figure one out.

• [ ] Properly format all content on the webpage:

  • [ ] The Doc to Markdown tool should have done this for you. Double check it. Make sure there are no errors, no weird spacing, no weird HTML code. And be sure to include:
    • [ ] Proper Header tags
      • [ ] Ensure that header tags follow the correct order:
        • [ ] Only 1 H1 - the title
        • [ ] H2s for major headings
        • [ ] H3s for minor headings (headings under a major heading, but not a new section)
        • [ ] And so on.
    • [ ] Pull quotes
      • [ ] Ensure pull quotes are not right above or right below an image.
      • [ ] Ideally, they are also not right above or right below a header of any size.

• [ ] Pull quotes should be used to help tell a scannable story, and break up blocks of text. Images and Headers do this on their own. Don’t gather your scannable items into one spot––use them wisely.*

• [ ] Ordered and unordered lists

  • [ ] Have these pulled in properly? If not, fix.

• [ ] Images

  • [ ] Images should be cited / sourced correctly, and that citation should live directly under the image itself, with a link to the original where needed.
  • [ ] Properly format all images including:
    • [ ] Right, left or center orientation?
    • [ ] Included Alt text in sentence form to describe the image
    • [ ] Properly size images for your CMS and for the specific piece (Not all images need to be full size, for example.)

• [ ] Links

  • [ ] Are all the links working properly?
  • [ ] Have you made them open in a new tab?
  • [ ] Have you linked within your own site properly? (Ideally this is done in the editing stage and you don’t have to worry about it here, but alas, it’s worth a mention).

• [ ] Edit the slug to the proper slug for the piece

  • [ ] Does this or another piece need to be redirected? Ping the SEO team ASAP after publish.

• [ ] Manually add in a table of contents for longer-form pieces. (Bonus points if your CMS does this for you)

  • [ ] If there is a TOC in the Google doc, add it to the article.
  • [ ] You will need to anchor the link. Here is how to do that.
  • [ ] Anchor link on your H2s
    • Anchor links––and therefore your H2s––should be mapped so that if you took all the subheads, they could tell their own story as a summary of the larger piece, and still provide value for the reader.
    • Don’t make your H2s incredibly long. They should still be headlines, and they can often pull into Google search results, too.

• [ ] Publish the piece, and inspect––read through it again, make sure everything looks right. Do not share it until it does.

  • [ ] Are all experts properly linked? Their LinkedIn or Twitter profile? The company where they work?
  • [ ] Are all images properly cited?
  • [ ] Do all images have proper meta-information and naming conventions?
  • [ ] Are any images blurry? Contact the design team (though you probably made it blurry when reducing size. Start over for that image. A bit bigger in size could help).
  • [ ] Is the meta-image pulling through properly on social via the Twitter validator? If not, fix it.

• [ ] Move the piece to the Published section in your project management tool.

  • [ ] This should start to build your internal team content repository.