Best SEO Practices After Hitting Publish: A Checklist

What are the best SEO practices after hitting publish?

Key Takeaways

I’ve been blogging for over a decade, but I’ve only been blogging successfully for the last three years.

What is successful blogging look like?

For me, it means:

Ranking in the top three spots on Google
Users click and buy from my affiliate links

I don’t blog for a vanity project; I blog for the income. A bonus is that I can work from anywhere I want to or in my pajamas.

So, now that I figured out how to rank, I developed a checklist for best SEO practices after hitting publish.

While there are many best SEO practices before you hit publish, those are outside the scope of this post. This article describes what I do after I hit publish, without fail; they take about 7 minutes, now that I’ve done them seemingly a million times.

The checklist isn’t long; it’s just six steps in order of importance.

That is it.

It’s designed to help you improve SEO performance and increase your productivity.

Let’s get to it!

A woman sitting at a computer with post its in both of ther hands and a pen in another. She is blond, wearing glasses, and smiling.

Why Are Blogging Systems Important?

Being methodical and having systems in place when blogging ensures consistency, quality, and efficiency, which are crucial for building a loyal audience and improving search engine rankings.

Structured approaches help manage content creation, optimization, and promotion, ultimately driving sustained traffic and engagement.

This is especially important if you run multiple sites, as I do.

I also help family and friends blog, so content is everywhere in my world.

A good spreadsheet is my best friend.

The Lazy Girl way is streamlining the blogging process so that systems run on autopilot, are easy to share, and can be taught to a team or a blogging manager so you don’t have to micromanage your hires.

Systems and Checklists Increase Productivity and Expend Less Energy

I’m a nerd when it comes to productivity and energy hacks.

Forget about giving me more time; I want more energy.

I want to finish essential tasks as quickly as possible so I can spend time on the things I really enjoy, like hanging out with family and traveling.

Productivity increases with a system in place because it provides a clear, organized framework for tasks, reducing decision fatigue and minimizing errors.

Systems, like this checklist, streamline workflows, ensure consistency, and allow for better time management, enabling business owners to focus more on high-priority tasks and achieve their goals more efficiently.

A woman holding a phone, looking up and smiling with a baby blue background.

Best SEO Practices After Hitting Publish Checklist

Here is my checklist. The tasks are listed in the order in which I perform them.

1. Manually Index on Google Search Console

After hitting publish on an article in WordPress, I immediately open my Google Search Console and manually index the post.

Manually indexing your posts in Google Search Console is not just a step; but a crucial one.

It ensures that your new or updated content is quickly discovered and indexed by Google, leading to faster visibility in search results.

This proactive approach helps improve your website’s SEO performance by allowing you to address any potential issues early and ensuring that your content reaches your audience promptly.

If you need to learn how to manually index, see the steps below.

Sign into your Google Search Console
At the very top, where it reads, “Inspect any URL,” enter your post’s URL

3. Hit Enter
4. Click on the “Request Indexing” button.
5. In about 30 seconds a light green box will pop up and read, “indexing requested.” (see below)

A GSC message box that reading "Indexing requested."

That is it. Step one complete!

Nice job. Keep going.

2. Share on Social Media

Unfortunately or fortunately, sharing on social media platforms is essential for blogging and SEO because it increases the visibility and reach of your content, driving more traffic to your website.

Ugh.

I don’t like social media platforms, more pointedly, the men who own them.

I do, however, like Flipboard.

To be successful on Flipboard, share your post as soon as you publish it.

Flipboard’s algorithm rewards recency, which is why this is step two and not further down the checklist.

Flipboard likes recency, meaning recently published content.

So, if you’re trying to expand your reach on Flipboard, Flip your post as soon as you’ve published it on WordPress.

Social signals, such as likes, shares, and comments, can enhance your website’s credibility and authority, indirectly improving its search engine rankings.

So, share on whichever social platform you already have a large following. I’m not an expert on social media channels because I despise most.

Other bloggers can give better advice on how to find success on Facebook and Instagram.

3. Use Link Whisper Premium’s Auto-Link Feature

I LOVE Link Whisper.

As I said, I like tools that make things easier—anything that saves me time and energy blogging, I will try it out.

Link Whisper is one of the essential blogging tools professional bloggers don’t go without.

My Link Whisper Review breaks down how to install the Link Whisper Premium plugin and how to best use it to save time on internal linking.

The third step in my Best SEO Practices After Hitting Publish Checklist is using Link Whisper’s auto-link feature.

Because internal linking is crucial to successful SEO, using an efficient internal linking plugin reduces the time spent thinking about internal linking strategies.

The Link Whisper Premium plugin streamlines the process, is inexpensive, and is easy to use.

Auto-linking is my favorite feature and the one I use the most.

It takes under 20 seconds.

Here are the steps:

Go to the auto-linking section under Link Whisper on the sidebar in the WordPress dashboard (see pink arrow).
Add the keyword that you want to direct to the specific URL you want to link to. Add the URL (see pink arrows). It’s that simple.
Click “Create Autolink Rule.”

Link Whisper will auto-link that keyword/URL to all your past and future posts.

It’s a brilliant plugin and is relatively inexpensive.

There is a free version, but you need the paid version for this feature and many others. It’s worth it!

👩🏻‍💻 Start internal linking with Link Whisper today! ⭐️

4. Add Your Keyword to a Rank Tracker

I love tracking keywords across the websites I run and own.

It’s so much fun. It’s like a game; the how-many-keywords-can-I-rank-for game?!

It’s like a challenge I can win.

It keeps me motivated to fine-tune my SEO strategy.

I used to use Keysearch for this, but now I’m using Ahrefs.

Keysearch is the cheapest and best keyword research tool on the market. For a mere $17 per month, you can track up to 100 keywords on this basic plan.

For Keysearch: Use Coupon Code: KSDISC for 20% off

Ahrefs is a bit more expensive.

The basic plan, which is $99 per month, allows you to track up to 750 keywords.

I love Ahrefs because it allows me to track keywords across multiple websites.

Tracking your keywords with a rank tracker is important because it allows you to monitor the performance of your posts in search engine results, helping you understand which strategies are working and which need adjustment.

This insight enables you to optimize your content effectively, target high-performing keywords, and improve your overall SEO strategy to increase organic traffic and achieve better search rankings.

When your rankings fall, audit the dropping posts and determine why a particular post is no longer performing well.

Conversely, if something is doing well, look at why it’s doing well and what you’re doing correctly.

Rinse and repeat.

5. Index on Bing

Google isn’t the only search engine out there.

Bing commands much of the market and is the third biggest search engine after Google and YouTube (also Google), though it holds a smaller share than Google.

Bing commands around 6-8% of the global search engine market share.

It’s particularly strong in the United States, where it powers searches for platforms like Yahoo and Microsoft’s products, including Cortana and Office.

Bing also integrates with Windows 10 and 11, giving it a broad reach among PC users.

Despite not being the largest, Bing’s role is essential, especially for advertisers and users looking for an alternative to Google.

When you use Rank Math, as I do, the process of indexing with Bing becomes automatic once you activate the Bing settings.

Go to Rank Math > General Setting > Webmaster Tools
Enter your Bing Webmaster Tools verification HTML code or ID. Get more detailed instructions here: Bing Webmaster Verification Page

When you publish a post, it’s indexed automatically on Bing.

If you don’t use Rank Math, you can index your posts manually.

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do it:

Step 1: Sign in to Bing Webmaster Tools

You need to either sign in or create an account.

Use your Microsoft account credentials to sign in. You’ll need to create an account if you don’t have one.

Step 2: Add Your Website

If you haven’t added your website to Bing Webmaster Tools yet, click “Add a Site” and enter your website’s URL.

Next, verify ownership. Follow the instructions to verify ownership of your website.

This may involve adding a meta tag to your website’s HTML, uploading an XML file, or verifying through your DNS provider.

Step 3: Access the URL Submission Tool

Once your site is verified, go to the dashboard and click on “URL Submission” in the left-hand menu.

Step 4: Submit the URL

Enter the URL in the “URL Submission” tool, enter the complete URL of the post you want to index.

Click the “Submit” button to send the URL to Bing for indexing.

That’s it! Step five complete. ✅

A woman's hands at a laptop keyboard typing at a desk.

6. Add the Published Post to Your Blog Data Sheet

The final step is to add the post and other pertinent information to a Google Sheet or another spreadsheet platform (Excel, Docs, etc.) to keep you organized.

I use Google Sheets to create my data sheets.

I name mine [blog name] Blog Data Sheet.

For example, “Lazy Girl’s Guide To SEO Blog Data Sheet.”

Adding this step to your blogging strategy will give you extra napping time.

Keeping a detailed spreadsheet of your content in one place will save you hours later trying to remember what you did when.

Start a blog data sheet as soon as you start a blog.

For newbie bloggers (I was once one), you may think you’ll remember all your little darlings because you worked hard on writing them and love them.

But after the 150 blog posts, they will blend together.

You won’t be able to remember which post is which, when you published it, when you updated it, etc.

This gets even more confusing when you run more than one blog.

Here’s a list of essential data points to keep track of on the top row of my blog data sheet in order:

Keyword: i.e., link-whisper-review
Title: i.e., Link Whisper Review: Do We Still Need It in 2024?
URL: i.e., https://lazygirlsguidetoseo.com/link-whisper-review/
Date Published: i.e., 07/09/2024
FlipBoard Date: i.e., 07/09/2024
Category: i.e., SEO
Last Date Updated: i.e., 10/07/2024
Word Count: i.e., 5,175
Internal Link: # you have
Backlinks: # you have

Filling in my Data Blog Sheet is the last step in my SEO checklist.

A girl loves a good checklist.

P.S. Adding this checklist to your blogging strategy will give a Lazy Girl extra napping time.

An illustration of a woman lying on a couch napping next to a laptop.

The Lazy Girl’s Guide to Blogging

Lyrical Host — The fastest hosting platform with the best customer service. I use Lyrical for all three of my blogs. The customer service is amazing and responds within the hour. They never leave me hanging.

Keysearch — This is the best and cheapest Keyword Research Tool. I use it every single day. I would be lost without it. Keysearch may be the number one essential blogging tool.

Link Whisper — interlinking is an essential part of blogging. Link Whisper streamlines this very important but time-consuming practice.

Interact Quiz — the money is in the list. Creating quizzes for your blog is one of the fastest way to grow your email list.

Active Campaign — this is one of the best email marketing platform. I’ve also used Convertkit, but I find Active Campaign more intuitive when creating and sending email campaigns.

Short Pixel — This is a plugin that compresses your images at increasing site speed and load times, essential for ranking.

RankIQ — RankIQ helps bloggers and content creators optimize their posts for search engines by providing AI-driven keyword research and content analysis tools.

Jasper.ai — Increase your content output with AI. I use it every day. It streamlines my blogging process and allows me to create content for three sites.

WP Rocket — Use this caching plugin to speed up your site. If you have Lyrical, you don’t need it. Lyrical provides a free caching plugin with one of their three plans.

Best SEO Practices After Hitting Publish: A Checklist

Why Are Blogging Systems Important?

Systems and Checklists Increase Productivity and Expend Less Energy

Best SEO Practices After Hitting Publish Checklist