Create and Optimize Blog Posts

Use HubSpot's Blog tool to create and publish compelling blog content as well as optimize your posts for SEO in order to drive traffic to your site.

Create a Blog Post

1. In HubSpot, Navigate to Marketing > Website > Blog

2. Click Create blog post button in the top right of the window

3. Choose whether to create a post in draft mode or inline edit mode

Draft Mode: Focus on writing and content - publishing options will not appear until you’re ready to optimize and publish.

Inline Edit Mode: Write, optimize, and publish all in one view

4. Hover over the blog post title module and click the pencil icon to enter your post title

Customize Post Settings

Use the tabs at the top of the page to navigate to the Settings tab.

1. Edit Blog title or Blog URL as needed

• For best SEO, make sure your title contains your most important keyword

2. Assign an Author

• Click the Author dropdown menu to select an author for the post
• Click + Create a new author if the author doesn't exist in HubSpot

(Manage blog authors)

3. Add Blog Tags to Post

Each blog post should have a max of 3 blog tags

• Click the Tags dropdown menu
• Start typing tag in field
• To add a new tag, click + Add [name of new tag]

(Manage blog tags)

4. Write Meta description

• A good meta description will drive search engine traffic to your page, so be descriptive but keep it under 155 characters.

5. Associate Post with Campaign

• From the Campaign dropdown bar, select a Campaign to associate the post with

6. Set Featured Image

• Switch the Enabled Featured Image toggle on to include a featured image
• Select Browse Images to select an image from your file manager OR Upload to upload an image from your computer. This image will be featured as the link's thumbnail image when sharing on social media, etc.

Optimize & Review Blog Post

Use the tabs at the far left of the window to navigate to the Optimize view (graph icon).

1. Attach Post to a Topic

Linking subtopic keyword content back to your pillar page establishes authority for your topic in search engine results.

(How to create topics)

1. Click the Core topic dropdown to select a topic
2. If this post is the pillar page for this topic, select Add topic keyword and jump to step 5. If this is a post for a subtopic follow steps 3-5
3. Select the checkbox for Is this supporting content?
4. Click the Subtopic keyword dropdown menu to select a subtopic keyword. If you don't have a subtopic keyword related to this page yet, select Add subtopic keyword. Enter a subtopic keyword and click Save.
5. Click Attach to topic

2. SEO Optimize Content

Use the optimizer in the content editor to review suggestions to improve your content for SEO best practices.

1. Check for H1 tag

• Post should contain at least one H1 tag

2. Add Image alt text

• The alt text should match the file name, without dashes e.g. Inbound Marketing Software

3. Image file name

• File name should contain key phrases related to your topic (see post topic, below). Each word should be separated by dashes (-), e.g., inbound-marketing-software.jpg.

4. Add Inbound links

• Add links to sites with information that’s relevant to your content

5. Check for Internal links

• Each page or blog post should contain a link to your pillar page for the post topic (see post topic, below).

6. Add/Update Page Title

• Title should be less than 70 words and include the subtopic keyword and domain

7. Check for Subtopic phrase in the Content & meta description

• Content attached to a subtopic keyword (see post topic, below) should feature that phrase in the content and meta description.

Publish or Schedule Blog Post

Use the tabs at the top of the page to navigate to the Publish or schedule tab.

1. Click the radio select for either Publish or Schedule
2. If you click scheduled for later, update the scheduled date and time
3. Click Schedule or Publish below to save and complete.