Raise your hand if you’ve got an unpublished draft hanging out in your blog platform right now. 🙋
Most online businesses do. We come up with a great idea for a blog post, start writing it… and then get hit by “publishing paralysis.” We know the post isn’t 100% perfect yet, so we hold off until we have time to make it so.
Spoiler alert: that time never comes.
It can be nerve-wracking to hit “publish” on a blog post you aren’t completely confident in, but trust us: Published is better than perfect. Here’s why!
Better than a No. 2 Pencil
Remember in elementary school, when your teachers would insist you use a number-two pencil because any errors would be easier to erase than scribbling them out in pen?
Well, website content is even easier to erase than pencil on paper.
Hitting “publish” can feel so permanent, but it’s actually the opposite. Unless you’re a celebrity whose social media posts are screenshot-ed forever, you can always edit or delete your online content after publishing it, and no one will ever know.
Plus, we’re always our own harshest critics. That little typo in the sixth paragraph? That extra image you meant to add but didn’t? You’re probably the only one who notices — or cares.
3 Tips to Just Hit “Publish” Already
Still worried your content isn’t quite ready to go live?
Here are three tips that might make it easier for you to finally hit “publish” on that old blog draft.
1. Float It
Instead of thinking about “publishing” your content, think about “floating” it, like a little paper sailboat. If it starts to sink or gets caught up in a current, you can simply pluck it out of the water, make some structural reinforcements, and plop it back in.
A word of reassurance: Even the most well-researched, well-outlined content can sometimes flop. Your post might take an unexpected turn, start driving traffic from random search queries, drive an influx of weirdos to your mailing list, or just totally underperform.
Don’t sweat it. After all, that post is nothing but a little paper sailboat, and you can do with it whatever you want!
2. Freshen It
Here at Till, we like to let our online content float for a good three months before we start making any edits. (Unless, of course, we notice something has gone terribly wrong before then.)
Letting your content float before you mess with it gives Google time to crawl it a few times, allows it to get some clicks, and provides enough data in your Google Search Console to see what kind of queries it’s showing up for.
Then, you can consider making changes to improve your post, such as:
- Selecting and emphasizing a different primary keyword
- Increasing your keyword density
- Restructuring the post content to better chase SERP features (e.g. featured snippets)
- Adding more / better data
- Adding more / better images
3. Get Out of Your Own Way
Sometimes, we are our own worst (online) enemy.
If you have unpublished content sitting around just because you don’t feel like it’s “ready,” we challenge you to go look at it right now, spend no more than 20 minutes working on it, and just hit “publish.”
You’ll feel better, we promise.
Then, make a note on your calendar to review your post 12 weeks from now. If you still feel weird about it, you can tweak or un-publish it — no harm done.
Keep Improving Your SEO and Online Content
Consider this your permission slip to just hit “publish” already — even if your post isn’t perfectly perfect.
That said, we know you still care about putting forth an impressive online presence. (As you should!)
If you’d like to learn more ways to improve your online content and search engine optimization, check out our other helpful SEO blog posts, or request a free SEO audit for your website.
Bonus! The Ultimate Blog Post Template
Want more help crafting the (almost) perfect blog post?
Download our new, free resource, The Ultimate Blog Post Template, to use the exact template we use to create SEO-friendly blog posts for our own clients!
