Do you observe the Spring Equinox? We love the fresh, invigorating energy it brings. It’s traditional to do a spring cleaning (with an herbal floor wash in our house) to shake off the sluggishness of winter and get new energy flowing. This year it got me thinking: Why not do spring cleaning for your blog too? I’ve put together a blog checklist to help you refresh your site. 

Your Spring Cleaning Blog Checklist 

You can use this blog checklist to create new posts or revise old ones. Google won’t penalize you for sprucing up old content!

1. Are you storytelling for your ideal clients?

How do your ideal clients want to feel? Show them how you’ll do that in your blog post. For example, if part of your brand is being helpful, include an anecdote about how you pinned boutonnières on the wedding party. Your blog post should be a tool for SEO, of course, but it should give a window into your client experience too. 

Sometimes it’s useful to remember that your blog post is for clients who haven’t booked yet. Even if you’re featuring work for a specific client, the point is to show potential clients that you can provide the experience they want and that you’re an expert at doing it.

Not sure how to balance storytelling with SEO? Check out this blog post for helpful strategies.

2. Is your brand voice consistent?

This is the part of the blog checklist where you might want to open that edit tab. Brand voice essentially is how your brand identity is translated into copy. It’s the tone you set and words you use to connect with your dream clients. Your brand voice should be the same across all of your webpages. Visitors to your website should be able to tell that your homepage and blog post are representing the same brand. I create a brand voice guide for my website copywriting clients precisely so that they can maintain this cohesion. 

3. Did you check for keyword cannibalization?

Aside from being a delightfully dramatic term, keyword cannibalization is something to be avoided. Keyword cannibalization [link] is an issue that arises when multiple pages (in this case, blog posts) are optimized for the same keyword. The posts will compete with each to the point that they knock each other of search engine results pages (SERPs) altogether.

I know wedding vendors are wondering: Does this mean that I can’t blog multiple weddings at the same venue? Not by any means! You just have to optimize the posts for different keywords. In 2021, Tia photographed multiple amazing weddings at the same venue. We optimized this one for the venue and this post for the keyword “two bride wedding.” Notice that both keywords align with two of Tia’s marketing goals: working at this wedding venue and photographing queer marriers.

4. Have you checked all the SEO bells and whistles?

The little things go a long way for blog SEO. Address anything that might slow down your load times, such as large image files or too many images. Add your keyword to some of your alt-text too. In addition to being important for accessibility, this helps search engines associate your images, not just your copy, with your keyword. You can find more SEO tips for blogging here. 

Has this blog checklist made you realize that you’d like a bigger blogging overhaul? We offer intentionally-designed packages for SEO-driven blogs. Reach out to learn more!