Are you new to WordPress and want get going on blogging as quickly as possible? The new Gutenberg editor for WordPress has been a controversial addition to the open source content management system but with time I’m sure everyone will become more used to its features and further features will be added via plugins. While the editor has a bunch of uses, we’re going to focus on the bare basics to get you going on your WordPress blog.
You’ve completed your writing and you’re ready to publish. We’ll go through the steps to take before hitting that Publish button.
Title
First of all, you’ll want to make sure you have your title set:

Permalink / Slug
Once your title is set, you’ll want to make sure that your slug (ie. what appears at the end of your URL/address bar) is appropriate. You can find this option by going to your Settings menu (the bar on the right hand side of the editor. Make sure you click the “Document” tab as you may have something inside your article selected. In my case, the URL for this article will be https://peritumstudios.com/blogging/your-blog-posting-checklist

Featured Image
In most themes, a featured image will be displayed somewhere at the top of the article. Check your theme first, but the vast majority of themes prefer either a widescreen image (ie. wider than it is tall) or a square image. You can set your Featured Image under the Settings->Document tab about half way down. Click the rectangle that says “Set featured image” and use the WordPress media selector to select or upload your image.

Page Template
Sometimes you will have extra settings to set on your Document tab. For example, if your site happens to have multiple blog templates setup, you can choose these from the dropdown under “Post Attributes”.

Page Builder Settings
If you are using a page builder like Divi, you may also have additional settings to do with the layout of your post’s page. These settings are typically towards the bottom of the Document tab.

Yoast
If you have Yoast SEO installed, you’ll want to go through your article and make sure it is readable! The Yoast SEO widget sits just below the content writing area. Make sure you set a Focus keyphrase then take a look at your “Readability” tab to make sure your blog post is up to snuff.

Completed all the above steps?
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