9 things you should do every time you publish a blog post

You’ve spent hours writing a blog post, agonised over the wording, hit publish… and then nothing happened.

Sound familiar?

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: publishing is only half the job. The other half is making sure people actually find it. As marketing expert Andy Crestodina puts it, the best content doesn’t win, the best promoted content wins.

The good news? You don’t need to be a tech wizard to promote your blog post well. This guide walks you through everything you should do, step by step, in plain English.

1. Do these technical bits first (they’re easier than they sound)

Before you start sharing anywhere, take a few minutes to tick off these two quick tasks.

Tell Google your new blog post exists

Google won’t necessarily find your new post straight away, sometimes it can take weeks. You can speed this up by submitting it manually through a free tool called Google Search Console. Once you’re logged in, paste your blog post URL into the “URL Inspection” tool and hit “Request Indexing.” That’s it. You’ve just given Google a nudge.

Link to it from other pages on your website

Go back to two or three older blog posts or service pages on your site and add a link to your new post where it’s relevant. This is one of the most powerful things you can do and it takes less than ten minutes. It helps Google understand that your new post is connected to the rest of your site, and it helps real visitors find it too.

2. Post it as an update on your Google Business Profile

If your business has a Google Business Profile (the listing that shows up on Google Maps), this is a quick win. You can create a short post on there linking to your blog article. It keeps your profile looking active and can help local customers find you. Think of it as a free notice board right on Google itself.

3. Share it on social media

This is where most people stop, they share it once and forget about it. But one post on one platform is rarely enough. Here’s how to do it properly.

Share it on every platform you’re active on. That means LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram Stories etc. Each platform works slightly differently:

• LinkedIn works best with a headline that promises a benefit, a few short punchy lines, and a good photo. Keep hashtags to three or fewer.
• Facebook responds well to a strong image and a headline that makes people curious or promises something useful.
• Instagram — share it in your Stories with a link sticker if you have one, or direct people to the link in your bio.

The smart way to create a whole year’s worth of social posts in one go

You can use a free AI tool like ChatGPT to turn your blog post into 12 different social media captions in minutes. Just paste your entire blog post in and ask it to write captions for whichever platform you want. Then use a free design tool like Canva to turn those captions into branded graphics using their “Bulk Create” feature — it’ll generate all 12 graphics automatically from a single template.

Once you have your graphics and captions ready, schedule them to go out over the next 12 months using a scheduling tool like SmarterQueue, Buffer or Meta’s own scheduling feature (free). That way, one blog post keeps working for you all year without you having to think about it again.

4. Ask your inner circle for a boost

This one feels a bit awkward, but it works. Think about the people in your life who would happily do you a small favour: friends, family, loyal customers, business contacts. Send them a personal message (not a group broadcast) and ask them to like, share, or comment on your post on whichever platform they use most.

Early engagement signals to social media algorithms that your content is worth showing to more people. Even a handful of likes and shares in the first 24 hours can make a real difference to how far your post travels.

Don’t forget to thank people when they do share it, a quick reply goes a long way.

5. Send it to your email list

If you have an email list, even a small one, this is often where your best results come from. The people on your list already know and trust you. They’re far more likely to read your content than a stranger on social media.

Send a short email with a link to the post. Keep it simple: a line or two explaining what the post is about and why they’ll find it useful.

Then, about a week later, send a second email with the subject line “In case you missed it…” This alone can double the number of people who actually read your article, because life gets busy and people miss things the first time.

If you have any high-value contacts: good clients, potential partners, people you really want to impress, consider sending them a personal email separately. Make it feel like you’re sharing something useful just for them, not a mass broadcast.

6. Share it in online communities

There are places online where people gather to talk about topics related to your business — and sharing your expertise there can bring genuinely interested readers to your blog.

Facebook Groups are a great starting point. Look for groups relevant to your industry or your customers’ interests that you’re already active in. Ask the group admin if it’s okay to share a link, and use a caption that leads with value rather than just dropping a bare link.

Reddit and Quora are websites where people ask questions on every topic imaginable. Search for questions related to your blog post, write a genuinely helpful answer, and include a link to your post at the end for anyone who wants to read more. This can bring in traffic for months or even years after you post it.

7. Get other websites to link to yours

When other reputable websites link to your blog post, Google sees your content as more trustworthy and tends to rank it higher in search results. Here are two easy ways to get started:

• Email anyone you mentioned or linked to in your article. Let them know you featured them and share the link. People are often happy to share or link back to content that mentions them.
• Ask relevant businesses or contacts if they’d be willing to link to your post from their website. Local partners, suppliers, trade associations, anyone whose audience might genuinely find your content useful.

8. Repurpose it into other formats

One blog post can become many different things. This is one of the best ways to get more mileage from content you’ve already created.

Turn it into a video. Record yourself talking through the main points of the post and upload it to YouTube. Videos can show up in Google search results alongside regular web pages, giving you twice the visibility for the same content.

Record an audio version. Read your blog post out loud and save it as an audio file. You can share it with your email list or on social media for people who prefer listening to reading. You don’t need any special equipment,  your phone’s voice recorder is fine to start with.

Create Pinterest pins. If your audience uses Pinterest, this platform can drive a surprising amount of traffic to your website. Use the ChatGPT and Canva method mentioned earlier to create 20 or more pins from your blog post, then schedule them using a tool like Tailwind or Buffer.

9. Come back to it in a few months

Promotion isn’t just a one-time event. One of the most overlooked steps is revisiting your blog post three to six months after publishing.

By that point, Google Search Console will show you whether people are finding it, what search terms are bringing them there, and whether the post is ranking at all. If it’s not performing as well as you hoped, it might just need a better title, a bit more depth in certain sections, or a few more internal links from newer posts you’ve written since.

Re-sharing older content on social media is also completely fine. Most of your followers won’t have seen it the first time, and fresh shares can bring a new wave of traffic to something you wrote months ago.

Your quick-reference checklist

Every time you publish a blog post, work through this list:

• Request indexing in Google Search Console
• Add internal links from 2–3 existing pages
• Publish a Google Business Profile post
• Share on all your social channels
• Ask your inner circle to like and share
• Email your list (and follow up a week later)
• Share in relevant Facebook Groups and answer a Quora question
• Reach out to anyone you mentioned in the post
• Create a video or audio version if you can
• Dip into Pinterest if your audience is there
• Schedule social posts to continue going out over the next 12 months
• Review performance at 3 and 6 months and refresh if needed

Publishing is just the beginning. The posts that get read, shared, and ranked are the ones with a proper promotion plan behind them. Work through this list even partially and you’ll already be ahead of most people hitting publish and hoping for the best.