Blog Publishing Checklist

Pre-publish check — runs entirely in your browser.

Publishing Checklist

0/9

Title written with the main keyword near the start
Meta description written and under the length limit
Featured image added with descriptive alt text
Heading structure checked (one H1, logical H2/H3 nesting)
Linked to 2–3 relevant posts on your own site
Canonical URL set if this content exists elsewhere
URL slug is short and readable
Proofread for typos and broken links
Publish time checked against when your audience reads

Heading structure is the item most likely to slip through unnoticed, since a post can look visually fine with headings styled correctly while still having two H1s or an H3 that skips straight past H2 in the underlying HTML — issues a search engine's crawler picks up on even if no human reader would ever notice. This site's own dedicated Heading Structure Checker, Canonical URL Checker, and Schema Validator tools cover several of these items in more depth if you want to verify them directly rather than just checking the box from memory.

•Internal links to 2–3 of your own posts do double duty — they help a reader find more of your writing, and they give search engines another path to discover and understand older posts.
•Proofreading for broken links specifically is worth doing right before publishing, not just after a first draft — links can quietly break during edits if a URL gets pasted over or a reference changes.