Editing a post before you publish

Every post in Blog AI has its own page: the editor on the left, and a side panel with everything else. You reach it from Posts, from a notification when a draft is ready, or from a card in your Actions list. This article goes through the page from top to bottom.

The editor

The editor works like a simple word processor. The toolbar has bold, italic and strikethrough; headings (H1 to H3); bulleted and numbered lists; quotes; links; images from a web address; code blocks; a divider line; and undo and redo.

A few habits help your posts read well and rank well:

• Use H2 for the main sections and H3 inside them. The post title is already the page's main heading, so you rarely need H1 in the body.
• Keep the citations. Drafts cite each fact inline, linked to its source. If you rewrite a sentence, keep its link, or the fact check has nothing to compare it with.
• Link to your other posts. If a post links to none of your others, the side panel says so. Links between your posts help readers and help Google understand your site.

Saving, and editing in two places

• Autosave. Your changes save two seconds after you stop typing. You can also click Save draft or press Ctrl S (⌘ S on a Mac).
• Saved in Blog AI first. Saving never changes your live site. For a published post, use Update live post to send your saved edits; see Update a post that is already live.
• Two tabs at once. If the post changed somewhere else since you opened it (another tab, a restore, or a publish), Blog AI doesn't overwrite it silently. It shows "This post changed somewhere else" and lets you choose Load latest (discard mine) or Keep mine.

The side panel

Click Show side panel (or Hide side panel) to toggle it. It holds:

Status and publishing

Whether the post is a draft, scheduled, published or needs review, with Publish now and Schedule for. See Publish or schedule a post. If a statistic doesn't match its source, the panel says Needs review, and publishing stays off until you resolve it in the Fact check panel.

Google result and details

What Google shows for the post, and the details sent to your site:

• Title in Google (SEO title). The blue headline in search results. Blog AI writes one with each post. Keep it short enough that Google doesn't cut it off; the preview below warns you when it would.
• Main search phrase (focus keyword). What people type into Google to find the post. Sent to Yoast SEO or Rank Math as the focus keyword.
• Meta description. The summary under the title in search results. Phones show less of it than computers, so put the point first.
• How it could look in Google. A preview for a computer or a phone, with a warning when the title or description would be cut off. Without a meta description, Google picks text from the post itself, and the preview shows that.
• The web address ending (slug). You can change it before publishing. Once a post is live, it can't change here, because changing a live address breaks links to it.
• Category (in Publishing). Pick from your site's categories, most-used first; subcategories show as "Guides › Payments". Posts Blog AI writes arrive with a category already chosen and a one-line reason. Typing a name your site doesn't have creates that category on your site when you publish.
• Excerpt, tags and original address. The excerpt defaults to the meta description. Tags are comma-separated; any that don't exist on your site are created when you publish. Fill in the original address (canonical URL) only if this post first appeared somewhere else.

Key takeaways and FAQ

The post's key takeaways (one per line, up to 5) appear right after its introduction, and its frequently asked questions at the end. Blog AI writes both; edit, add or remove them here. They're part of the post you publish, but kept out of the editor so they stay in one piece. Takeaways should only say what the post says.

Images

Generate an image or upload your own, choose the featured image and write its alt text. See Featured and inline images.

Fact check

Each fact and the source it was checked against, with flags to resolve. See Reading fact-check flags.

Version history

Every earlier version of the post; see below.

Post details

Word count, when it was last updated, whether it was Written by AI, Written by hand or Imported, and the publish date.

Version history

Blog AI keeps a version:

• of the original draft, before your first edit
• every time you save
• every 10 minutes while you're typing
• when the post is published to your site, or refreshed by Blog AI
• before and after any restore

To go back:

1. Open Version history in the side panel.
2. Pick a version to preview it: its title, meta description and text.
3. Click Restore this version.

Restoring is safe to try. The version you're replacing is saved first, so you can restore it again. For a live post, restoring changes the copy in Blog AI only; your site isn't touched until you click Update live post. If the restored version contains claims you'd already resolved, they're flagged again for you to check.

Performance, once the post is live

Published posts show How this post is doing: a chart of clicks, times shown in Google, click rate, rank and visits from search, with markers for when the post was published, refreshed or had its Google snippet changed. Each marker compares the 28 days before with the 28 days after. Google shares its numbers a day or two late, so a new post's chart starts empty. See Reading your performance report.

Common questions

My formatting disappeared on my site

Blog AI sends clean Markdown-based formatting: headings, lists, links, bold and italic, quotes, images and code. Fancy layout (columns, buttons, embeds) isn't carried over. Add those on your site after publishing if you need them, but bear in mind Blog AI won't overwrite a live post that's been edited on your site.

Can I write a post from scratch?

Yes. On Posts, click New post. You get the same editor and side panel, with no fact check (nothing was generated to check).