Trusted WordPress tutorials, when you need them most.
Beginner’s Guide to WordPress
WPB Cup
25 Million+
Websites using our plugins
16+
Years of WordPress experience
3000+
WordPress tutorials
by experts

How to Add a Blog Post Checklist to the WordPress Editor

Editorial Note: We earn a commission from partner links on WPBeginner. Commissions do not affect our editors' opinions or evaluations. Learn more about Editorial Process.

Do you want to add a blog checklist to the WordPress editor?

A checklist can help you to make your posts the best they can possibly be. If you’ve added multiple bloggers to your site, then a checklist can also help everyone write in the same style and remember all the details.

In this article, we will show you a step-by-step guide on how to add a blog post checklist to the WordPress editor.

How to add a blog post checklist to the WordPress editor

Why Add a Blog Post Checklist to the WordPress Editor?

A blog post checklist shows a list of tasks you need to do before publishing your post. Once you’ve finished writing, you’ll want to edit, proofread, add categories and tags, optimize the post for search engines, and more.

Some WordPress plugins, such as All in One SEO (AIOSEO), use checklists to help site owners with search engine optimization by prompting them to include primary keywords in their SEO titles, meta descriptions, URLs, subheadings, and the body of the blog posts.

The AIOSEO plugin's SEO checklist

Pre-publish checklists typically monitor your post as you are writing and then check off each task as you finish it. This makes it easy to see what you’ve done well and what you still need to work on.

Checklists are also handy for multi-author WordPress blogs as they can ensure a consistent quality standard for your content and speed up their content creation.

With that in mind, let’s see how you can add a blog post checklist to improve your WordPress website‘s editorial workflow.

How to Add a WordPress Blog Post Checklist to the Block Editor

The easiest way to add a blog post checklist function to the WordPress editor is by using PublishPress Checklists. This WordPress checklist plugin adds a checklist to the right-hand menu of the page or post editor.

A blog post checklist created with PublishPress

PublishPress has a list of default tasks that you can add to your article writing checklist. It also lets you create custom checklist tasks for your WordPress blog.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the plugin. If you need more instructions, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, head over to Checklists » Settings in the WordPress dashboard.

The PublishPress Checklist settings

Here, you can choose where WordPress will show your checklist. To add a blog checklist to the Gutenberg editor, you’ll want to check the ‘Posts’ checkbox.

Once you’ve done that, just click on the ‘Save Changes’ button.

Adding a checklist to the WordPress post editor

You can then build your checklist by going to Checklists » Checklists.

Here, you’ll see all of the default tasks that you can add to your blog post checklist. PublishPress is able to detect when these tasks are completed and check them off for you.

Tasks for your WordPress blog post checklist

All these tasks are disabled by default.

To add a task to your blog post checklist, simply open the ‘Disabled, Recommended or Required’ dropdown menu.

The Recommended and Required checklist dropdown

You can now choose between ‘Required’ or ‘Recommended.’

If you click on ‘Required,’ then authors won’t be able to publish their WordPress posts without checking off the task first.

If the user clicks on the ‘Publish’ button without completing all ‘Required’ tasks, then WordPress will show a ‘Please complete the following tasks before publishing’ message.

A WordPress blog post checkbox

If you choose ‘Recommended’ instead, then the editor will show a message encouraging authors to complete any outstanding ‘Recommended’ tasks before publishing.

However, authors will be able to publish their posts without completing these tasks.

A list of recommended blog post tasks

After choosing between ‘Recommended’ and ‘Required,’ you can move on to ‘Who can ignore the task?’

Here, you can let certain user roles publish a post without completing the task, even if that task is ‘Required.’ For example, you may trust your site’s admins or editors to skip this task if they think it’s for the best.

To add a user role to your ‘ignore’ list, click on the ‘Who can ignore the task?’ box.

Creating an 'ignore' list for your WordPress checklist

This opens a dropdown showing all of the different user roles on your site.

You can now simply click on a role to add those users to your ‘ignore’ list.

Adding a blog post checklist to the WordPress editor

For some tasks, you may need to set a maximum and minimum value. For example, you can set a minimum number of categories that authors must add to a post. To learn more, please see our guide on how to add categories and subcategories in WordPress.

If the task has a ‘Min’ and ‘Max’ section, then you can type in the numbers you want to use.

Setting maximum and minimum tasks

To add more tasks to your checklist, simply repeat the process described above.

You can also add custom tasks to your blog post checklist.

The drawback is that PublishPress can’t check whether the author has completed custom tasks. This means the author will need to do this check manually.

For more information about custom tasks you may want to add, please see our guide on how to optimize your blog posts for SEO like a pro.

To create a custom task, simply scroll to the very bottom of your screen and then click on ‘Add custom task.’

Creating custom blog list checklist tasks

This adds a new task ready for you to customize.

To start, type the task’s name into the ‘Enter name of custom task’ field. This text will be shown in your publishing checklist, so make sure it lets authors know exactly what they need to do.

Adding a title to your custom checklist task

You can now make this task ‘Recommended’ or ‘Required’ and give some users the option to ignore this task by following the process described above.

For custom tasks, you can specify the users who can mark this task as complete. For example, you might use custom tasks to create a special ‘Editing’ checklist for users who have the Editor role.

How to add a blog post checklist to WordPress

To do this, click on the ‘Which roles can mark this task as complete’ box. This opens a dropdown where you can click to select any of your user roles.

Once you’ve added all the tasks to your checklist, simply click on the ‘Save Changes’ button. Now, you can visit the WordPress editor to see your blog post checklist live.

What Type of Tasks Can You Add to a Pre-Publish Blog Post Checklist?

Every WordPress site will have a different set of checklist items in their editor. But if you need some inspiration, here’s what you can add to your pre-publishing checklist:

We hope this article helped you learn how to add a blog checklist to the WordPress editor. You may also want to check out our guide on how to create an email newsletter and our expert pick of the best WordPress SEO plugins and tools you should use to improve your rankings.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

Disclosure: Our content is reader-supported. This means if you click on some of our links, then we may earn a commission. See how WPBeginner is funded, why it matters, and how you can support us. Here's our editorial process.

Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi with over 16 years of experience in WordPress, Web Hosting, eCommerce, SEO, and Marketing. Started in 2009, WPBeginner is now the largest free WordPress resource site in the industry and is often referred to as the Wikipedia for WordPress.

The Ultimate WordPress Toolkit

Get FREE access to our toolkit - a collection of WordPress related products and resources that every professional should have!

Reader Interactions

1 CommentLeave a Reply

  1. Syed Balkhi says

    Hey WPBeginner readers,
    Did you know you can win exciting prizes by commenting on WPBeginner?
    Every month, our top blog commenters will win HUGE rewards, including premium WordPress plugin licenses and cash prizes.
    You can get more details about the contest from here.
    Start sharing your thoughts below to stand a chance to win!

Leave A Reply

Thanks for choosing to leave a comment. Please keep in mind that all comments are moderated according to our comment policy, and your email address will NOT be published. Please Do NOT use keywords in the name field. Let's have a personal and meaningful conversation.

WPBeginner Assistant
How can I help you?

By chatting, you consent to this chat being stored according to our privacy policy and your email will be added to receive weekly WordPress tutorials from WPBeginner.