I used over 70 blog post checklists that rank on Google to see how blogging advice has changed over the years and what’s important for modern-day bloggers to consider.
It was alarming to discover that their advice hasn’t changed much since the 2000s.
Although content needs and expectations have changed significantly, the way bloggers approach the task of creating content is still stuck in the past.
This guide will break down where most blog post checklists go wrong (so you can avoid those pitfalls) and what you should do instead so your content succeeds today.
The Evolution of Blogging in the AI Era
In the early days, blogging was a very successful way to engage with audiences.
- Ranking on Google was easier
- Social media wasn’t as big of a distraction
- Micro content wasn’t really widely adopted
- People read more long-form content
Bloggers had a lot more original and unique content they could share, mainly because many niches had not yet been saturated. Everyone was figuring it out as they went.
Much of what now gets shared on social media was once shared in short blog posts and read by loyal audiences.
But these days, audiences are fractured, attention spans are waning, and most people consume online content differently.
Not to mention, expectations are higher due to the explosion of AI-generated slop. SEO-first content has also flooded search engines and often does not offer anything unique to readers. Rather, it has created a sea of sameness that makes it harder for readers to find genuinely helpful content that doesn’t just regurgitate what everyone else is saying.
To succeed with blogging today, you need to rise above these challenges, and (in my opinion) none of the blog post checklists I used can help you do that.
Why Old Blog Post Checklists No Longer Work
When reviewing these 70+ blog post checklists, I noticed a few patterns. As a reader, I found that despite ranking well, these checklists:
- Frequently shared contradictory advice
- Centred on very vague and obvious steps
- Included outdated tactics, even if they’d been updated recently
- Could still lead to bad content being created
- Didn’t account for the changes AI has brought about
Some checklists were treated as a standard operating procedure of all the things to remember to do once you hit publish.
Others were more like glorified SEO checklists of all the small technical and on-page factors. Most of these factors no longer move the needle and can be automated with SEO tools.
And while there were nuggets of gold in some, that gold was buried so deep, that most searchers wouldn’t find it. If that’s what you’re seeking in a blog post checklist, I’ve got you covered.
Download The Ultimate Blog Post Checklist for Modern Bloggers
I compiled all 90+ recommendations from the checklists I reviewed into the ultimate blog post checklist, so you don’t have to dig for the gold as I did.
Make a copy, customize it to include only the things that apply to your brand, and then use it as a standard operating procedure for your team or AI agent to automate as many of these steps as possible.
I also included the number of times each suggestion was mentioned in the checklists I checked out for two reasons:
- So you can see what advice everyone is following and rise above it
- So you can find the less frequently mentioned tactics that could be your competitive edge
Spoiler alert: the only thing almost all these checklists agreed on is that you need a catchy headline (duh).
Like this, most suggestions in these checklists are not only self-evident but also vague or unhelpful for modern bloggers since they no longer get the results they once had.
So, instead of just sharing another blog post checklist with vaguely helpful advice that 70+ other folks have already shared, here’s my advice for modernizing your approach to blogging and gaining traction in the AI era.
1. Reframe The Goal of Your Blog Post
Most blog post checklists assume the goal is to rank and drive traffic. But that’s an outdated mindset.
Today, Google is showing fewer organic listings, sending fewer clicks to publishers, and AI summaries are bypassing traditional listings altogether.
For example, on mobile, a user would have to scroll to the fourth screen of results to get to the first organic listing for this query:
Chances they’ve already clicked on something else are highly likely.
Modern blog posts should be designed to:
- Spark discovery across multiple platforms
- Be optimized for Google’s entire ecosystem, not just the “ten blue links”
- Earn visibility in LLM responses and AI Overviews
- Create unique knowledge that’s worth citing, linking to, or summarizing
- Build trust through lived experience or expert points of view
When you shift your goal from rankings to building trust and brand discovery, everything else changes: how you write, what you share, and why it matters. Ranking becomes a byproduct, not the finish line.
2. Make Your Content LLM Friendly
Tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other LLMs are changing how people discover and interact with content. These models now summarize, cite, or surface blog content based on structure, clarity, and originality.
Now, doing the basics mentioned in the Ultimate Blog Post Checklist will get you part of the way there.
Especially if you focus on things like using clear headings, having short paragraphs, incorporating lists, and other methods of scannable formatting.
Here’s what forward-thinking brands are doing to go above their competitors:
- Write like you’re answering a question: Mirror the way people prompt tools like ChatGPT by framing your subheadings as questions (e.g. “What is…”, “How do you…”). This makes your content easier for LLMs to recognize and reuse.
- Use clear labels that help AI understand your content: Organize your ideas under descriptive, meaningful headings that reflect real-world topics or themes. This helps LLMs map your content to relevant user prompts more accurately.
- Include your brand inside the content: Earn more natural in-line attribution like “According to [Your Brand]” to increase the chances of being cited. LLMs often summarize without linking to sources. Naming your brand as part of the text increases your visibility.
- Coin and define your own frameworks: Create original terms, models, or processes that offer a new lens on your topic. LLMs can favor unique phrasing and are more likely to feature content that introduces fresh concepts.
For example, here’s a ChatGPT response about “habit stacking” where it mentions the author and book that popularized this concept:
The goal is to get your brand mentioned for the topics you want to be associated with. As you develop your brand identity, the more unique topics and frameworks associated with your brand (and the more popular these become), the more mentions you’ll receive in search engine and LLM responses about these topics.
3. Replace Word Count With “Idea Density”
A long blog post doesn’t mean it’s a valuable one. Many checklists still push minimum word counts—1,000, 2,000, even 3,000 words—as if length alone equals quality.
But these days, it’s not about how much you write. It’s about how much new, useful insight you pack into every section. That’s what “idea density” is about.
Instead of measuring success by word count, focus on how many original, relevant takeaways you’re delivering per 200 words.
For example, in 2008, Basecamp wrote a short opinion piece where it coined the term “managers of one”:
It took them fewer than 200 words to explain this novel concept.
Great content doesn’t need to be lengthy to make an impact. This post has earned over 1,500 links naturally, and people are still talking about and using the idea today.
For instance, it is a core part of GitLabs’ leadership handbook:
So, before hitting publish, ask:
- Have I said something new, or just rephrased what’s already ranking?
- Is each section contributing a fresh insight, unique angle, or real-world example?
- Could I make this shorter without losing clarity or impact?
High-density content respects your reader’s time and earns more quotes, shares, and citations because it teaches something others don’t. Aim for clarity, originality, and compression, not just length.
4. Add Original Signals That AI Can’t Fake
LLMs are excellent at remixing existing information, but they can’t invent new data, recall lived experiences, or run experiments. That’s your edge.
If your blog post sounds like something AI could generate in five minutes, it probably won’t stand out to readers, Google, or LLMs.
To rise above the noise, include signals of real-world experience that machines can’t replicate, like:
- First-party data from your own research, experiments, or tools
- Screenshots of your actual process, dashboards, or workflows
- Quotes from internal experts or firsthand interviews
- Unique case studies with detailed results
- Custom frameworks or mental models you’ve developed
Let’s use this post about blog post checklists as an example. I’ve done some original research and compiled an ultimate checklist, which hasn’t been done before.
I know this because I checked out all the checklists ranking in the top 100 search results.
But, if I’d asked AI to draft my post outline, it would have recommended I do what 70+ people have already done:
As a result of adding my own opinion, a contrarian angle, and original research, this post is unlike others written about the topic. It’s also modernized to fit the current state of blogging.
Originality signals not only make your content harder to copy, but they also make it more credible, more engaging, and far more likely to be cited by both people and machines.
5. Humanize Your Content With First-Person Insight
Most AI-generated content sounds polished but hollow. It often lacks a clear point of view, lived experience, or emotional context—things only a human can offer.
Injecting first-person insight into your blog posts creates connection and credibility. Readers want to hear from someone who’s actually been there, not just summarizing what others have already said.
Look for moments where you can say:
- “In our experience…”
- “We tested this and found…”
- “Here’s what worked (and didn’t) when we tried it…”
- “One mistake I made early on was…”
- “This is how we actually do it inside our business”
This whole post is an example of how I applied this advice:
Adding a personal perspective gives your content weight. It doesn’t have to be overly vulnerable. It just needs to sound like it came from a real person with real experience.
6. Document The Process, Not Just The Outcome
Most blog content focuses on polished advice or final results, but the real value often lives in the process. Readers don’t just want to know what you did, they want to understand how you did it.
For example, “BTS” or “behind-the-scenes” footage is very popular on social platforms where creators showcase how they make their products or run their small businesses. But it’s also effective for blogs too.
Here’s an example from Ahrefs:
Or Buffer’s post about buying out its investors:
This format works on so many channels and for large and small companies alike.
By documenting your process, you make your content more transparent, relatable, and genuinely useful. It also gives your post more depth than AI-generated summaries can provide.
Consider sharing:
- A step-by-step walkthrough of how you created something
- The tools, templates, or frameworks you used along the way
- Roadblocks you encountered and how you solved them
- Decisions you made (and why) as you went
- Real timestamps or screenshots to bring the process to life
When you let people behind the curtain, your advice becomes more credible, and your content becomes more challenging to replicate.
It shows readers how to think, not just what to copy. It also builds their trust in your brand, so they’re more likely to read future content you post.
7. Write for Discoverability Across Platforms (Not Just Google)
While search engines are still a major way people discover content these days, that’s changing.
Readers can now stumble across blog posts via LinkedIn, Reddit, YouTube summaries, email newsletters, and AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity.
To be fair, many blog post checklists (even from the early 2000s) include content repurposing, but they assume you’ll write first and then adapt later.
The smarter approach is to design your content for distribution from the start by:
- Including modular ideas: Each section should stand alone as a self-contained insight, ready to be quoted, clipped, or screenshotted.
- Designing for remixability: Use clear subheadings, punchy takeaways, and data blocks that can be lifted into videos, threads, or slides.
- Referencing trends or debates that are already happening on LinkedIn, Reddit, or in your niche’s Slack groups.
- Formating with LLMs in mind: Clear attribution and structured answers help your content surface in AI summaries and chatbot responses.
- Planting distribution hooks: Use phrasing like “You can share this framework with your team…” or “We turned this process into a 3-step checklist”.
Discoverability today is about creating content that travels well on its own. If it only makes sense in a 1,500-word format, it’s not future-ready.
8. Create a Living Asset, Not a Static Post
Most blog posts are written, published, and forgotten. But high-performing content today isn’t a one-and-done project. It’s a living asset that evolves alongside your audience, your insights, and the platforms it’s discovered on.
For instance, to maintain visibility for competitive topics like “best laptops”, CNET (among other publishers) updates its content monthly so it maintains peak visibility. All the dark green squares below indicate major content updates made to this post:
This is a living asset that continues to deliver results in the long term. It’s not a set-and-forget thing.
Google favors freshness. LLMs respond better to up-to-date information. And your readers trust content that feels current and refined over time.
To keep your blog post alive:
- Set a reminder to review and update top-performing posts every 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 where people drop off, then restructure accordingly
- Expand sections with new insights, reader feedback, or updated visuals
- Include internal notes for your team to revisit or reframe content when something shifts in your industry
The best content today doesn’t just rank once; it earns attention again and again because it stays relevant.
You can also check out Whitespark’s freshness distance calculator to work out the ideal update frequency for your content:
9. Design for Scanability and Retention (UX Is No Longer Optional)
Even the best content won’t perform if buried in long, dense paragraphs or clunky layouts. Attention spans are short, and readers skim before they commit.
Most people (and LLMs) won’t stick around long enough to get the value if your content isn’t easy to navigate and pleasant to consume.
Improving scanability and retention isn’t just about visuals. It’s about how your content flows, signals key takeaways and keeps readers moving.
To make your blog post easier to engage with:
- Use clear, descriptive headings that double as navigation cues
- Break up long text blocks with bullet lists, short paragraphs, and pull quotes
- Ensure enough white space between paragraphs so they’re not a “wall of text”
- Add visual rhythm using charts, inline images, or custom formatting
- Include jump links or summaries for long-form content
- Analyze scroll behavior using tools like Crazy Egg to identify drop-off points and optimize layout
Content isn’t just about what you say. It’s how you guide people through it, and whether they want to keep reading. Design plays a big part in that.
A cluttered layout, or a “wall of text” experience, can be off-putting to readers. It requires a lot of work for them to figure out where to focus.
Readers don’t owe you their attention, they can easily open up a competing website if they don’t like the experience of yours.
You’ll need more than a blog post checklist if you want to stand out, be remembered, and be the brand searchers gravitate to. You’ll need a strategy built for the way people (and machines) discover content today.
The problem isn’t that blog post checklists exist; it’s that too many of them haven’t evolved. Use what works, and leave behind what doesn’t. Build something that earns attention from your target audience today.
