Use This Publishing To-Do List to Boost Website Traffic

Whenever you create a piece of content, SEO might be on the brain. You want to make sure that guest content is going to an authoritative and relevant website, and you want to make sure that your blog content is continually pushing the envelope and keeping users engaged. Whatever the case may be, crafting that perfect article takes a lot of work. Between research and different content types and internal linking and author bio links and great images, finally seeing something published feels like a relief.

However, it's important that businesses and writers remember that your job isn't finished when an article goes live. You may have done a great job writing an engaging article and/or earning that great natural link, but you can improve your SEO by focusing on several things even after the article has been live for several days. And in fact, many editors now insist on it. Below are steps to take to get the full benefits.

Publishing To-Do List

Promote the Article on Social Media for Several Weeks

This is probably the most obvious step, but what many are still missing is the importance of sharing an article on social media beyond just one or two days. You certainly don't want your social accounts to be nothing but promoting one or two articles (you should be also promoting other people's work), but sharing content over several weeks can help keep the momentum going. You should never assume that your audience would all see one tweet or one Facebook post. Vary the days and times you share, cover all of your platforms, and keep it consistent.

I recommend using a social media sharing platform like the Buffer app or SocialMention to help schedule social posts, keep everything up to date and not get too overwhelmed. Dashboards like Hootsuite and TweetDeck are also great tools to utilize. Below is a screenshot of a Hootsuite dashboard for social:

Link Back to the Article on Your Website

Once your article is live, you don't want to forget about it. Although you are likely hoping for natural links from others reading the article, you can still help out by building backlinks to that post if you're ever writing about something else that is relevant. If you can refer back to that article on your own blog, that's a great way to build up the article.

Respond and Continue to Check Back for Comments

This point works very similarly to the first point about sharing the post on social media. It may seem obvious, but what still isn't obvious to many is the idea of responding to comments after more than a few days. It's your job as an author to continually check back for comments no matter where the article is published.

Many websites allow you to actually subscribe to comments through a service called Disqus, which is crucial to take part in if you're the author. This will make sure that every time there is a comment on your post you get an email right to your inbox so you don't miss anything. When you login to comment through Disqus, you will automatically be subscribed to the comment thread. The email looks like the following:

Even if a website doesn't have this feature, set a reminder for yourself to go back and check for comments. I personally have gotten into the habit of checking all of my live articles every Friday, which works great. After several months, the article should die down and you can start putting your energy elsewhere.

Stay Connected with the Editor and Readers for Better Online Relationships

This of course refers only to when you're working with editors, but it's important to keep your relationships going even after your article goes live. This means potentially writing another article or sending story ideas to get something in the pipeline, sharing other articles posted on the website, and connecting with the editor on social media.

If you write a post and get your link and then disappear (especially if you ignore comments and social sharing), then the chances of that editor helping you in the future are slim. Editors can also talk with other editors about how you are as a guest author, so you want to keep your reputation positive. If you're really lucky, a great relationship will also transfer into some social sharing for your own site from that editor.

Copy and Save the Live Link for Your Records

When your post is finally live, you'll want to record this in some sort of master spreadsheet, particularly if you're working with guest posts. If you don't get into this habit, you're on your way to getting overwhelmed and letting some content slip through the cracks. Remember, you should be going back to your articles months after they've been live to respond to comments and re-share, so this can get tough if you don't have all of your URLs in one place.

Way in the Future, Revisit Your Article and Make Updates

As discussed earlier, after several months your post will likely die down in popularity and you can start to focus your content efforts elsewhere.

However, way, way in the future (maybe two or three years) you will want to refer back to that spreadsheet of URLs and check on your post to make sure it is still up to date and relevant. If it's not, then you should work to make changes to your post to bring it back to life. Make sure your statistics are up to date, your links are not broken, and all of your information is still correct.

Republished by permission. Original here.

Working at Computer Photo via Shutterstock

This article, "Use This Publishing To-Do List to Boost Website Traffic" was first published on Small Business Trends