Publishing your blog post is often exciting. You have done all of the hard work in researching your subject, writing the content and finding great images to go with it. Finally, you are pleased with it and it’s time to press publish so the world can see your work. However, you are not yet finished, there are 7 things you need to do after you have published your blog post.

You do not have to do these things but if you really want your post to be seen by the world then they are highly recommended. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is key to your success.

1. Fetch as Google

I am assuming here that you already have google analytics and webmaster tools on your site. If you haven’t then this is a must do job. Google is king in terms of SEO and if they do not know you exist you cannot get any organic traffic. You will not show up as an option when anyone searches your topic online. Getting indexed by Google should be a priority for any blogger.

If you don’t already have it then read my post here. 

If you have Google analytics on your site then using Google fetch is a way of getting Google to notice your blog post and indexing it sooner rather than later. I have had posts indexed within hours by using Google Fetch.

I have provided you with the link to Google fetch here.The process is simple. Add the URL of your blog post, remembering to remove your site name as that should be there already. Request Fetch and then request Indexing. This will be for desktop. Now choose Mobile and do the same again. Now Google knows your Blog post exists and should index it fairly quickly.

2. Fetch as Bing

Fetch as Bing is very similar and whilst Bing is not the King of SEO it is still used by 33% of people as a search engine. Note Bing also controls the Yahoo, search engine too. Again you need to have Bing webmaster tools and analytics on your site. If you don’t you are missing a trick with your SEO attempts.

With Bing Fetch you need to put in the whole URL and it needs to be done just the once. Here is the link to Bing Fetch assuming you have it set up on your site.

If you do not have Google or Bing Webmaster tools, can I suggest you join Wealthy Affiliate for free and follow the first level of training. You can join by clicking on the banner at the top of this page which says Build a website for free. (you don’t need to build a new website) or by clicking on any of the links in my Wealthy Affiliate review.

3. Get Comments on your post

Content within your blog will have the most impact on how Google and Bing ranks your posts. Now you can only write so much but if you get comments and then you reply, you are going to up the word count of your blog post. It will also show Google and Bing that people are engaging with your posts and they will rank you higher as a result. No one likes to be the first to leave a comment so the organic ones are hard to come by when you first publish a post.

So how do you get comments quickly?

My first port of call is within the community of Wealthy Affiliate. Other members are always willing to leave comments in return for one on theirs. They also have a forum for leaving and giving comments. You do have to be a premium member to access this however.

If you are not using the Wealthy Affiliate platform, I suggest Facebook groups which is my next port of call. Most Facebook groups for bloggers have posts that encourages people to leave and give comments. If you are not already a member of a few, then request to join. It may take you a while to find the right ones for you but it is definitely worth the effort. Just don’t join, drop your link and run though. Facebook groups are about give and take.

I really don’t get comments from anywhere else other than the organic ones that are eventually left. However, you could get family members or friends to leave a comment or two. I wouldn’t dare as my family have a very dry sense of humour and I would probably have to trash them anyway.

One rule with comments is always reply, no matter where they come from.

4. Create Social Media graphics

This exercise is the forerunner for Steps 5 and 6 You don’t have to do this but I find it helps to get more engagement on my posts. Every Social Media platform has a different optimum sized media graphic. Not helpful if graphics are not your forte. I really struggled to find images that worked on the different platforms before I found Canva. They have sorted all the sizes so you can create a graphic for each. I try to create a similar graphic to create some consistency with promoting my blog post.

Each one I do will have an image and my blog post title or a call to action related to it. It usually has my website in there too. Once I have created one for Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram, I am ready to promote.

5. Post to Google +

Now you will notice I have not created a graphic specifically for Google + They do not have an optimum size and I can use any I have created or an image from my actual post. Google + is often overlooked by bloggers as a way of promoting their posts. This is a big mistake. It’s owned by Google and Google is the King of SEO. It makes perfect sense to make Google aware of your presence any way you can. If you do not have a Google + account, get one now and start to promote each and every post you write there.

I only ever promote it once within Google + It is posted publicly and within any of the appropriate communities, I belong to. Finding appropriate communities to join is easy. Always +1 others people’s posts and they will return the favour. A +1 is equivalent to a like.

6. Post to Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter

Now this sounds like four jobs but I have reduced it down to just two by using Tailwind. Tailwind helps me to schedule my posts to Pinterest and Instagram. When I schedule my posts promoting my blog post to Pinterest and Instagram using the graphics I have made, it gives me the option to post to Facebook and Twitter too. This actually means that I post to Facebook and Twitter twice and once to Pinterest and Instagram.

The Facebook and Twitter graphics won’t be optimised and Twitter will only show a link, so I do actually manually post to them separately too. I like to make sure my Blog post has the maximum exposure.

You don’t have to use Tailwind but if you want to have a free months trial you can check it out by following this link.

You can post all of these manually and you can use just writing on Facebook and Twitter and any image you like on Pinterest and Instagram. I do suggest that this will not get you as much engagement as you would like. Read my post on How to get more engagement on Social Media for tips on how you should write promotional material.

7. Get a cup of Coffee and enjoy.

It doesn’t have to be coffee it can be a glass of your favourite tipple if you like but the point here is that you need to give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done.

All too often when working online there is little applause for all of our hard work. Writing a blog post is no easy feat, getting it seen and read by people is even harder and we need to give ourselves a high five before we move on to the next one.

Burn out is real in the world of blogging so take a break and congratulate yourself.

With that I’m off to do the first six things on my list of things to do after publishing my blog post and then I’m going to get myself a nice cup of cookie dough coffee, my favourite flavour.

If you have any questions please leave me a comment below and I will get back to you as soon as I can. You can also contact me through my Facebook page www.facebook.com/withgraceandg…

With Grace and Gratitude

Karen