Nine quick things you can do to improve your blog today
AH, blogging.
Always so much to learn, so much to do and never enough time to do it all. I hear ya.
As I’m sat here typing this, in the back of my mind right now, I’m thinking of about five things that I desperately need to do to my blog. And also thinking, “when on earth am I gonna find the time to do THAT!”.
So it’s tough at times granted. Most improvements take more time than we’ve got and lots of effort, but for now, I want you to forget all about those and concentrate on the quick, little things you can do to improve your blog TODAY.
Or if not today, well then some time soon. When you’ve got five minutes spare and ideally a cuppa or a glass of wine in hand.
Are you ready? Are you steady? Ok, here we go.
1) Add a search bar if you haven’t already got one – Help people stay longer on your blog and find what they want with a simple search bar. And whilst you’re at it, pop it near the top of your sidebar too so it’s easily spotted. Besides your readers, PR people and brands also need this on your blog, so they can check out your previous content or see if you’ve posted something for or about them.
2) Make sure ALL of your social media accounts are linked from your blog – an obvious one you’d think but I only noticed yesterday that my LinkedIn account was missing and I’ve been blogging for over three years. Oops!
3) Update your header – If your blog is looking a bit stale, change your header (like I did yesterday!) Either employ the services of a professional if you’ve got the cash or create something yourself with images and text using a free online tool like Picmonkey.
4) Give your blog a strapline – If you haven’t got one, create one. So for example I’ve just changed mine to: REAL Life. REAL Inspiration. REAL glamour. Help people get a sense of what your blog is all about and spell it out to them in a sentence. Oh and make sure it’s on your header too.
5) Make sure your contact details are easy to find – In my other work as a freelance PR, I am quite frankly astonished how many blogs don’t have contact details or have them hidden away in some obscure place. If you want people to contact you and if you want to work with brands, then you need to put your contact details in an obvious, easy to spot place.
6) Space the copy out – The way we read online is very different to say, reading a book as our attention span is severely limited. So if you want to keep your readers, reading, make life easier for them and introduce more space into your posts. Don’t publish huge chunks of text with no breaks or spacing. It is exhausting for people. Add more white space, break up your paragraphs and give people some reading ‘space’.
7) Join a linky! – A simple to way to boost your stats, audience and comments is to join in a linky, where you share a couple of your links for people to read and then visit a few other blogs through their shared links. It’s quick, it’s fun and it works. The lovely Aby from You Baby Me Mummy has a mammoth list of them all here.
8) Clean up your sidebar – Ditch the blog clutter and make sure your sidebar is as clean as possible. Get rid of any widgets which you no longer benefit from or which look messy. Too many will only distract from your fabulous content.
9) Add an SEO plugin – If you use WordPress, boost your SEO super easily with a plugin. I use SEO Yoast for this blog and it is marvellous. Trust me, when I say a simple SEO plugin like this really will make a difference.
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With love,
Kate
Fab tips lovely. Thanks for linking to my post. Lots of love xxx
Brilliant tips hon, I’m pleased that for once I actually comply rather than sit here adding five more things to the to do list! I’m a Yoast newbie but am loving it. Have a great weekend lovely xxx
Brilliant tips! I think I have most, but I am making sure the list is ticked!! Many thanks for sharing, oh and I LOVE the new header and strap line :) Jess x
Some really solid advice here. Thanks so much – I will bookmark these and work my way through them :-)
Agree with all of these, and I am so glad you included number 6. I’m constantly repeating the mantra that white space is a blogger’s best friend, and nothing annoys me more than an unnecessarily cluttered layout full of dense, tiny text.
I would also add that all bloggers should make it easy for readers to subscribe. I have lost count of the number of blogs that I have wanted to follow that haven’t had a simple subscribe button, or that only have a Bloglovin or RSS one (which is fine, but not everyone uses those). At the very least, everyone should have a ‘subscribe by email’ button.
I need to go self-hosted so I can add the Yoast plug-in. I am so pleased with how my blog is doing despite the fact I pay zero mind to SEO. I just write and go. Just think the difference that plug in could make!
I’ve also been thinking about my header. I don’t actually mind the simplicity of my look (it’s more about the content for me) but I think the header could be more jazzy.
xxx
#sundaystars
Some great tips – some are very obvious, but as you say, amazing how many people forget or don’t bother with them. I really need to start introducing more spaces and paragraphs to my copy, I just find I tend to thing and right in long sentences / paragraphs! :)
Great advice as always and I was surprised how many I could tick :) thanks for sharing #SundayStars
Thanks for a great post with some fab tips. Think I am doing ok with most of them. Love your header by the way! xx #sundaystars
Brilliant tips – really useful. Thanks for sharing and thanks for linking up to #SundayStars
This is brilliant, managed to go through all of these in about 10 mins over lunch. If I can do it in that time then nobody has any excuse not to do it too!
I think most of these I have done/I do anyway although that’s a very good point about spacing out text, I should do that more. I also didn’t have a search bar either but that’s now been rectified!
Jenna at Tinyfootsteps xx
What do you do when half of the list might as well be in Japanese??
I’ve no idea what a widget is how I’d put a search or subscribe box on. Think I might be In a bit over my head!! :-s
Some really useful tips there. Thanks for sharing.
Love these!! Changing my header now! Thanks lady!
Great tips and i too struggle with huge chunks of text, I like it in bitesize pieces x
Thank you. I’ve been worrying about seo a lot but didn’t really know what to do, I will try yoast. Also excited about pic monkey. #sundaystars
OMG I totally love your new header darling it’s awesome! And fabulous tips too – think I have all of them covered except that I’ve been wedded to my header for over 4 years now… perhaps it’s time for a change for me too! Totally with you on picmonkey by the way, its my go-to photo and image editor. xx
so many great tips on here Kate. thanks x
#sundaystars
Thanks for reminding me to change my header on All Baby Advice! I love it, but really needs updating! Lovely tips x
I definitely agree with all of these, especially number 6. I used to write great big paragraphs in my posts even though I would never read other blogs formatted that way because it’s too much effort. Now I try to break things up into small chunks and if I can turn it into a list that’s even better!
Great post and tips. Thank you I will be making use of these :)
Thanks for the tips! I’m going to try out Picmonkey now! x #allaboutyou
What great tips. I’m gonna look up a SEO plugin for blogger right now. I get really annoyed with Picmonkey though….mainly because I am a massive idiot and can’t work out how to go back only one stage if I’ve faffed up the position of some text. Ugh i can’t even think about it…it’s making me get the angers! :’) No reflection of your great ideas here though, obviously! #allaboutyou
Fab post, really helpful points, thanks!
I added a strap line last week. Talk about creative block! It took me ages and I’m still not really sure I like it!
Thanks for the tips.
#brilliantblogposts
Great tips, I think the only one we’re not doing is the tag line, maybe we should think of one…hmm…
Fab tips, I’m glad I’m already doing most that makes me feel a little more confident! I definitely need the tag line though so that’s topping my To Do list :) #brilliantblogposts
Great tips, I’m adding the search bar as we speak x #brilliantblogposts
Awesome tips and thanks so much for sharing! I completely agree and mine is in need of a Spring clean – clear out the clutter! Mim @ http://www.mamamim.com #brilliantblogposts