Why Most Blog Post Checklists Are Outdated (And What To Do Instead)

I used over 70 weblog publish checklists that rank on Google to see how running a blog recommendation has modified through the years and what’s necessary for modern-day bloggers to think about.

It was alarming to find that their recommendation hasn’t modified a lot because the 2000s. 

Though content material wants and expectations have modified considerably, the way in which bloggers method the duty of making content material continues to be caught up to now. 

This information will break down the place most weblog publish checklists go improper (so you’ll be able to keep away from these pitfalls) and what it’s best to do as a substitute so your content material succeeds as we speak. 

The Evolution of Running a blog within the AI Period

Within the early days, running a blog was a really profitable technique to interact with audiences.

• Rating on Google was simpler
• Social media wasn’t as huge of a distraction
• Micro content wasn’t actually broadly adopted
• Individuals learn extra long-form content material

Bloggers had much more authentic and distinctive content material they may share, primarily as a result of many niches had not but been saturated. Everybody was figuring it out as they went.

A lot of what now will get shared on social media was as soon as shared briefly weblog posts and skim by loyal audiences.

However nowadays, audiences are fractured, consideration spans are waning, and most of the people eat on-line content material otherwise. 

To not point out, expectations are larger as a result of explosion of AI-generated slop. Web optimization-first content material has additionally flooded serps and sometimes doesn’t supply something distinctive to readers. Reasonably, it has created a sea of sameness that makes it tougher for readers to search out genuinely useful content material that doesn’t simply regurgitate what everybody else is saying.

To succeed with running a blog as we speak, it is advisable to rise above these challenges, and (in my view) not one of the weblog publish checklists I used will help you do this. 

Why Outdated Weblog Publish Checklists No Longer Work

When reviewing these 70+ weblog publish checklists, I observed just a few patterns. As a reader, I discovered that regardless of rating properly, these checklists:

• Often shared contradictory recommendation
• Centred on very obscure and apparent steps
• Included outdated techniques, even when they’d been up to date not too long ago
• Might nonetheless result in unhealthy content material being created
• Didn’t account for the adjustments AI has led to

Some checklists had been handled as a regular working process of all of the issues to recollect to do when you hit publish. 

Others had been extra like glorified Web optimization checklists of all of the small technical and on-page components. Most of those components now not transfer the needle and may be automated with Web optimization instruments.

And whereas there have been nuggets of gold in some, that gold was buried so deep, that the majority searchers wouldn’t discover it. If that’s what you’re looking for in a weblog publish guidelines, I’ve acquired you lined.

Obtain The Final Weblog Publish Guidelines for Fashionable Bloggers

I compiled all 90+ suggestions from the checklists I reviewed into the last word weblog publish guidelines, so that you don’t need to dig for the gold as I did.

Make a replica, customise it to incorporate solely the issues that apply to your model, after which use it as a regular working process on your group or AI agent to automate as many of those steps as attainable.

I additionally included the variety of instances every suggestion was talked about within the checklists I checked out for 2 causes:

1. So you’ll be able to see what recommendation everybody is following and rise above it
2. So you will discover the much less continuously talked about techniques that may very well be your aggressive edge

Spoiler alert: the one factor each one of these checklists agreed on is that you just want a catchy headline (duh). 

Like this, most recommendations in these checklists should not solely self-evident but in addition obscure or unhelpful for contemporary bloggers since they now not get the outcomes they as soon as had. 

So, as a substitute of simply sharing one other weblog publish guidelines with vaguely useful recommendation that 70+ people have already shared, right here’s my recommendation for modernizing your method to running a blog and gaining traction within the AI period.

1. Reframe The Objective of Your Weblog Publish

Most weblog publish checklists assume the objective is to rank and drive visitors. However that’s an outdated mindset. 

At the moment, Google is exhibiting fewer natural listings, sending fewer clicks to publishers, and AI summaries are bypassing conventional listings altogether.

For instance, on cell, a person must scroll to the fourth display screen of outcomes to get to the primary natural itemizing for this question:

Probabilities they’ve already clicked on one thing else are extremely seemingly.

Fashionable weblog posts must be designed to:

• Spark discovery throughout a number of platforms 
• Be optimized for Google’s complete ecosystem, not simply the “ten blue hyperlinks”
• Earn visibility in LLM responses and AI Overviews
• Create distinctive data that’s value citing, linking to, or summarizing
• Construct belief by lived expertise or knowledgeable factors of view

Once you shift your objective from rankings to constructing belief and model discovery, every part else adjustments: the way you write, what you share, and why it issues. Rating turns into a byproduct, not the end line.

2. Make Your Content material LLM Pleasant

Instruments like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and different LLMs are altering how folks uncover and work together with content material. These fashions now summarize, cite, or floor weblog content material based mostly on construction, readability, and originality.

Now, doing the fundamentals talked about within the Final Weblog Publish Guidelines will get you a part of the way in which there. 

Particularly when you deal with issues like utilizing clear headings, having quick paragraphs, incorporating lists, and different strategies of scannable formatting.

Right here’s what forward-thinking manufacturers are doing to go above their opponents:

• Write such as you’re answering a query: Mirror the way in which folks immediate instruments like ChatGPT by framing your subheadings as questions (e.g. “What’s…”, “How do you…”). This makes your content material simpler for LLMs to acknowledge and reuse.

• Use clear labels that assist AI perceive your content material: Set up your concepts below descriptive, significant headings that mirror real-world matters or themes. This helps LLMs map your content material to related person prompts extra precisely.

• Embrace your model contained in the content material: Earn extra pure in-line attribution like “In response to [Your Brand]” to extend the probabilities of being cited. LLMs typically summarize with out linking to sources. Naming your model as a part of the textual content will increase your visibility.

• Coin and outline your individual frameworks: Create authentic phrases, fashions, or processes that provide a brand new lens in your subject. LLMs can favor distinctive phrasing and usually tend to function content material that introduces contemporary ideas.

For instance, right here’s a ChatGPT response about “behavior stacking” the place it mentions the creator and guide that popularized this idea:

The objective is to get your model talked about for the matters you wish to be related to. As you develop your model id, the extra distinctive matters and frameworks related together with your model (and the extra well-liked these develop into), the extra mentions you’ll obtain in search engine and LLM responses about these matters.

3. Substitute Phrase Depend With “Thought Density”

A protracted weblog publish doesn’t imply it’s a beneficial one. Many checklists nonetheless push minimal phrase counts—1,000, 2,000, even 3,000 phrases—as if size alone equals high quality. 

However nowadays, it’s not about how a lot you write. It’s about how a lot new, helpful perception you pack into each part. That’s what “concept density” is about.

As an alternative of measuring success by phrase rely, deal with what number of authentic, related takeaways you’re delivering per 200 phrases.

For instance, in 2008, Basecamp wrote a brief opinion piece the place it coined the time period “managers of 1”:

It took them fewer than 200 phrases to elucidate this novel idea.

Nice content material doesn’t must be prolonged to make an impression. This publish has earned over 1,500 hyperlinks naturally, and persons are nonetheless speaking about and utilizing the concept as we speak.

As an example, it’s a core a part of GitLabs’ management handbook:

So, earlier than hitting publish, ask:

• Have I mentioned one thing new, or simply rephrased what’s already rating?
• Is every part contributing a contemporary perception, distinctive angle, or real-world instance?
• Might I make this shorter with out shedding readability or impression?

Excessive-density content material respects your reader’s time and earns extra quotes, shares, and citations as a result of it teaches one thing others don’t. Intention for readability, originality, and compression, not simply size.

4. Add Authentic Indicators That AI Can’t Faux

LLMs are wonderful at remixing current data, however they’ll’t invent new knowledge, recall lived experiences, or run experiments. That’s your edge.

In case your weblog publish appears like one thing AI may generate in 5 minutes, it in all probability received’t stand out to readers, Google, or LLMs. 

To rise above the noise, embrace alerts of real-world expertise that machines can’t replicate, like:

• First-party knowledge from your individual analysis, experiments, or instruments
• Screenshots of your precise course of, dashboards, or workflows
• Quotes from inside specialists or firsthand interviews
• Distinctive case research with detailed outcomes
• Customized frameworks or psychological fashions you’ve developed

Let’s use this publish about weblog publish checklists for example. I’ve finished some authentic analysis and compiled an final guidelines, which hasn’t been finished earlier than. 

I do know this as a result of I checked out all of the checklists rating within the prime 100 search outcomes.

However, if I’d requested AI to draft my publish define, it will have beneficial I do what 70+ folks have already finished:

Because of including my very own opinion, a contrarian angle, and authentic analysis, this publish is not like others written in regards to the subject. It’s additionally modernized to suit the present state of running a blog.

Originality alerts not solely make your content material tougher to repeat, however additionally they make it extra credible, extra partaking, and way more more likely to be cited by each folks and machines.

5. Humanize Your Content material With First-Individual Perception

Most AI-generated content material sounds polished however hole. It typically lacks a transparent standpoint, lived expertise, or emotional context—issues solely a human can supply.

Injecting first-person perception into your weblog posts creates connection and credibility. Readers wish to hear from somebody who’s really been there, not simply summarizing what others have already mentioned.

Search for moments the place you’ll be able to say:

• “In our expertise…”
• “We examined this and located…”
• “Right here’s what labored (and didn’t) once we tried it…”
• “One mistake I made early on was…”
• “That is how we really do it inside our enterprise”

This complete publish is an instance of how I utilized this recommendation:

Including a private perspective offers your content material weight. It doesn’t need to be overly weak. It simply must sound prefer it got here from an actual particular person with actual expertise.

6. Doc The Course of, Not Simply The End result

Most weblog content material focuses on polished recommendation or remaining outcomes, however the actual worth typically lives within the course of. Readers don’t simply wish to know what you probably did, they wish to perceive how you probably did it.

For instance, “BTS” or “behind-the-scenes” footage may be very well-liked on social platforms the place creators showcase how they make their merchandise or run their small companies. However it’s additionally efficient for blogs too.

Right here’s an instance from Ahrefs:

Or Buffer’s publish about shopping for out its traders:

This format works on so many channels and for big and small corporations alike.

By documenting your course of, you make your content material extra clear, relatable, and genuinely helpful. It additionally offers your publish extra depth than AI-generated summaries can present.

Take into account sharing:

• A step-by-step walkthrough of the way you created one thing
• The instruments, templates, or frameworks you used alongside the way in which
• Roadblocks you encountered and the way you solved them
• Selections you made (and why) as you went
• Actual timestamps or screenshots to convey the method to life

Once you let folks backstage, your recommendation turns into extra credible, and your content material turns into more difficult to duplicate. 

It reveals readers assume, not simply what to repeat. It additionally builds their belief in your model, in order that they’re extra more likely to learn future content material you publish.

7. Write for Discoverability Throughout Platforms (Not Simply Google)

Whereas serps are nonetheless a serious approach folks uncover content material nowadays, that’s altering. 

Readers can now stumble throughout weblog posts by way of LinkedIn, Reddit, YouTube summaries, e-mail newsletters, and AI instruments like ChatGPT and Perplexity.

To be truthful, many weblog publish checklists (even from the early 2000s) embrace content material repurposing, however they assume you’ll write first after which adapt later. 

The smarter method is to design your content material for distribution from the beginning by:

• Together with modular concepts: Every part ought to stand alone as a self-contained perception, able to be quoted, clipped, or screenshotted.
• Designing for remixability: Use clear subheadings, punchy takeaways, and knowledge blocks that may be lifted into movies, threads, or slides.
• Referencing developments or debates which are already occurring on LinkedIn, Reddit, or in your area of interest’s Slack teams.
• Formating with LLMs in thoughts: Clear attribution and structured solutions assist your content material floor in AI summaries and chatbot responses.
• Planting distribution hooks: Use phrasing like “You may share this framework together with your group…” or “We turned this course of right into a 3-step guidelines”.

Discoverability as we speak is about creating content material that travels properly by itself. If it solely is smart in a 1,500-word format, it’s not future-ready.

8. Create a Dwelling Asset, Not a Static Publish

Most weblog posts are written, printed, and forgotten. However high-performing content material as we speak isn’t a one-and-done venture. It’s a residing asset that evolves alongside your viewers, your insights, and the platforms it’s found on.

As an example, to keep up visibility for aggressive matters like “greatest laptops”, CNET (amongst different publishers) updates its content material month-to-month so it maintains peak visibility. All of the darkish inexperienced squares beneath point out main content material updates made to this publish:

This can be a residing asset that continues to ship ends in the long run. It’s not a set-and-forget factor.

Google favors freshness. LLMs reply higher to up-to-date data. And your readers belief content material that feels present and refined over time.

To maintain your weblog publish alive:

• Set a reminder to evaluation and replace top-performing posts each 6 to 12 months 
• Add changelogs to key articles so readers (and crawlers) can see what’s new
• Use heatmaps and scroll maps to see the place folks drop off, then restructure accordingly
• Develop sections with new insights, reader suggestions, or up to date visuals
• Embrace inside notes on your group to revisit or reframe content material when one thing shifts in your trade

The most effective content material as we speak doesn’t simply rank as soon as; it earns consideration time and again as a result of it stays related.

You may also take a look at Whitespark’s freshness distance calculator to work out the best replace frequency on your content material:

9. Design for Scanability and Retention (UX Is No Longer Elective)

Even the most effective content material received’t carry out if buried in lengthy, dense paragraphs or clunky layouts. Consideration spans are quick, and readers skim earlier than they commit. 

Most individuals (and LLMs) received’t stick round lengthy sufficient to get the worth in case your content material isn’t simple to navigate and nice to eat.

Bettering scanability and retention isn’t nearly visuals. It’s about how your content material flows, alerts key takeaways and retains readers transferring.

To make your weblog publish simpler to have interaction with:

• Use clear, descriptive headings that double as navigation cues
• Break up lengthy textual content blocks with bullet lists, quick paragraphs, and pull quotes
• Guarantee sufficient white house between paragraphs in order that they’re not a “wall of textual content”
• Add visible rhythm utilizing charts, inline photos, or customized formatting
• Embrace leap hyperlinks or summaries for long-form content material
• Analyze scroll conduct utilizing instruments like Loopy Egg to establish drop-off factors and optimize structure

Content material isn’t nearly what you say. It’s the way you information folks by it, and whether or not they wish to hold studying. Design performs an enormous half in that.

A cluttered structure, or a “wall of textual content” expertise, may be off-putting to readers. It requires quite a lot of work for them to determine the place to focus. 

Readers don’t owe you their consideration, they’ll simply open up a competing web site in the event that they don’t just like the expertise of yours.

You’ll want greater than a weblog publish guidelines if you wish to stand out, be remembered, and be the model searchers gravitate to. You’ll want a technique constructed for the way in which folks (and machines) uncover content material as we speak.

The issue isn’t that weblog publish checklists exist; it’s that too a lot of them haven’t advanced. Use what works, and go away behind what doesn’t. Construct one thing that earns consideration out of your target market as we speak.