You put a lot of work into publishing a new article, both before and after hitting the publish button.
But do you follow a rigid process or routine every time?
If you publish regularly on your website or blog, you want each new article to have the best chance of finding readers.
With all the challenges that AI search and the flood of AI-generated content pose for writers and publishers, you need to put your best foot forward every time.
What are the most vital elements?
I doubt that anything is more important than quality writing for any online content.
That means original ideas, sound research, and rigorous checking, editing, and formatting.
You might also need to work with images, graphs, and tables, or data and fact citations.
In other words, getting from your original idea to a complete first draft can take quite some time.
For me, it can take anywhere from a day or two to close to a week.
But my process is always the same. After researching a new idea, I always write in a word processor and never in the online editor of my site.
Writing online is so open to making silly mistakes.
It’s a long while ago now, but I remember hitting “publish” instead of “save draft” once for a half-finished post. It was late at night, and I was tired. The next morning, the comments, messages, and emails told me something was up.
It goes without saying that I learned my lesson: never write or edit articles online.
The writing process is different for every writer, but what do you do once your new article is ready to publish?
Developing your pre-publishing routine
One of the main reasons for having a routine is that it helps you avoid forgetting a part of the process.
I originally created a checklist, but I rarely look at it as all the steps are now in muscle memory.
The very first task for me is to find four or five internal link opportunities in my new article text.
Linking out to existing articles is a great way to give readers more information, but also to support existing articles.
On the other side of the coin, I look for four or five of my existing articles where I can naturally include an anchor text link to the new article.
I add all these links, notes, and URLs at the end of my word processor text.
These are my two main internal linking tasks, because it’s always better to publish with internal links and have a list of linking pages ready to link immediately after publishing.
The reason is that search engine crawlers are always active, so I prefer to have all the links live as soon as possible.
One other pre-publishing task is to prepare the featured image and any decorative or informational images, tables, or graphs.
The last step I take is to copy all my article text and links into a plain text editor.
Pasting directly from a word processor file into an online editor can include a lot of background code. Pasting plain text is always a safer, cleaner option.
Then it’s a matter of formatting the text, adding the internal links, and including any extra images or call-outs the article needs.
After this, I look at an online preview to make sure everything is perfect.
When I’m satisfied, I do one more writing check with an online writing checker, followed by one last thorough proofread. Now I’m ready to publish.
My post-publishing routine
Hitting the publish button is easy, but does your finger hesitate for a little while before you do? I know mine does. It’s a nervous few seconds of reminding yourself that you’ve done everything right.
But once you click, the concern disappears, and the focus is on what to do next.
The very first thing I do is go to my prepared list of four or five existing articles and add the internal anchor texts to the new article.
Then I share my new article on social media. I only use my Facebook page, X, and Pinterest because I’m not a big fan of social media.
However, as I mentioned before, search crawlers are always active, and social media can also help with online discovery.
The last part of my routine is to submit the new page URL to Bing Webmaster Tools and Google Search Console.
The reason for doing this last is that all the new links between my site pages and social media are already in place.
That makes it easier for the two search engine crawlers to find, evaluate, and hopefully index my new article quickly.
Fortunately, and perhaps because of my set routines, both Bing and Google usually index my new articles very quickly.
Should you create your own checklist?
I understand that routines, habits, and checklists are not every writer’s cup of tea.
But when publishing a new article, a set routine can soothe the nervous, shaking finger hovering over the publish button.
What you need to do before you hit the button is always more important than what you do after.
But knowing what you need to do immediately after publishing gets things out of the way sooner, and you can then get on with your next project.
You don’t need to create a long list, but noting down a few key actions makes sure you get your publishing process right every time.
In my opinion, getting all your internal links ready before you publish a new article saves a lot of time and really helps search bots understand where your new article fits on your site.
But never forget to do one last meticulous proofread before you hit the button.
If you’re publishing on other platforms, such as Medium, you can follow the same routine.
However, if you are content marketing and having your new articles published on other blogs and sites, you might not be able to edit your existing articles to add a link to your newest one.
But you can include links in a new article to some of your already published articles.
Summary
You don’t need to go overboard, but having a set routine helps when you’re publishing regularly.
It avoids the situation of suddenly remembering in the middle of the night that you forgot to do something important.
Attracting readers is always a challenge for writers, and especially now. So every step you can take that gives you a little edge helps.
The quality of your writing and topic selection are your primary ways to attract and retain readers.
But using links effectively to help people and search engines discover your writing is one of the most useful things you can do next.
When you get it right every time, you’ll be ahead of the pack.
Related Reading: Do You Publish For Readers, Search Engines, And AI?
English teacher, writer, and author. Passionate about grammar, creative writing, and self-publishing. Always exploring new tools and tech to help writers succeed.
