Blogging is a popular activity these days, and for a good reason!
Blogs provide an outlet for people to share their thoughts on different topics. In addition, it’s a great way to connect with others who have similar interests.
In this blog post, we’ll discuss ten things that every blogger needs to succeed. From social media integration to design aspects, keep reading for essential tips from our expert bloggers!
#1 Social media integration
Bloggers can’t go without social media integration. Whether you use Facebook, Twitter, or another platform, it is important to have a strong following on at least one of these platforms in order to reach your target audience and drive traffic to your blog.
If the idea of building an online presence scares you, don’t worry! All it takes is some time and patience, and before you know it, you’ll have an audience just waiting for you to post your next blog piece!
#2 Compelling content
You can have the best social media integration possible, but this won’t mean a thing if you don’t have compelling blog content. Bloggers should never underestimate how vital quality writing is to their success.
In addition, guest posts are a great way to increase traffic and diversity in blog content.
#3 Design and layout
A professional-looking blog design isn’t completely necessary, but it can help make your site more attractive to readers.
First impressions are essential in the blogging world! If you don’t have any experience with web design or coding, we recommend hiring a graphic designer to create an aesthetically pleasing website for you.
However, if this is not possible, there are plenty of great free resources on WordPress that can provide quality tutorials for beginning bloggers.
Ultimately, it’s up to each individual blogger what they want out of their online presence and whether they think investing time and money is worth the potential impact on traffic and audience engagement.
But if you are willing to put in the effort, there is no reason why your blog can’t be successful!
#4 Security
Blogging can be a great way to connect with others and share your ideas. However, it is important that you take the necessary precautions to ensure the security of your blog site. Without this precaution, hackers could potentially access sensitive information or even inject malicious code onto your website!
To make your blog more secure and keep any cybercriminals at bay, you can consider installing the Best WordPress security plugins on your blog. You can also create unique passwords for different logins.
Also, backup all of your work! You can’t have too many backups. This way, if something terrible happens to one version of the site, you’ll always have another copy ready to go.
With these precautions in place, you should be able to minimize risk and enjoy blogging with peace of mind!
#5 Search bar
A blog search bar can be a helpful feature for readers, especially if they lose interest in the topic of your site or want to find an old post. If you are running multiple blogs on one site, it is also important to keep all posts organized and easily accessible with proper tagging.
Another reason why blogging couldn’t go without a search bar? Google optimization!
Adding relevant keywords will make your content more visible to those searching online, potentially increasing traffic for users who don’t subscribe via email.
#6 About page
It is easy to overlook the importance of an About page, but it can be a valuable tool for readers and potential sponsors.
On your About page, you should outline who you are as a person or blogger, what your blog is about, and how people can contact you if they have questions/want to work with you! In addition, an email address specifically designated for business leads will ensure that these contacts don’t get lost in a sea of spam emails.
As mentioned earlier, this could also serve as another great way to promote yourself online. For example, if someone likes what they see on your About page, then there’s always the possibility that they’ll share it with their followers through social media channels, resulting in more traffic!
This tip goes both ways, too – if you have a large social media following already, publishing an About page will be beneficial to your blog. But, on the other hand, your audience might want more information about who they’re interacting with online, and this quick explanation can help satisfy that demand!
And if all else fails, just remember: “An ounce of image is worth a pound of promises.” People are much less likely to trust someone without any background information or credentials, which is why it’s vital for blogger bios on each site/social media profile where applicable!
#7 Images
Using images and photos for your blog posts is a great way to break up the content and keep readers engaged. However, it’s essential that you use them responsibly! You should only include high-quality photographs that relate directly to your post’s topic without distracting from what matters most: The written word!
Remember also not to overuse stock photography – these pre-made images are often used in thousands of other blogs across the web, so they can quickly cause your site to look generic or unprofessional.
Instead, try taking pictures with an actual camera (or at least with a phone) and editing them on Photoshop/Gimp/PicMonkey before adding them into their relevant posts.
As mentioned earlier, this could be helpful if you sell products on your blog. If you take a picture of yourself holding the product, it is much easier for readers to recognize that this isn’t just another online retailer but an actual person!
Another advantage? Search engines see these images as relevant keywords, which can help boost SEO rankings and increase traffic over time.
This also goes back to what was mentioned earlier about organizing posts with appropriate tagging – if someone does a Google search related to the topic of one of your pictures, there’s a good chance they’ll find their way onto your site effortlessly!
#8 Categories
Categories are another important way to sort through your content. Like with search bars, these tags can be helpful for readers who want more information on a particular topic but don’t have time to sit down and read all of your posts. On the other hand, this is like having an index in the front of each book you publish online!
Readers could easily click onto one post and then bounce over to another, which isn’t exactly what we’re going for here.
This is why it’s best – especially if you sell products or services related to specific categories (and not just general lifestyle topics) – that you categorize each blog post accordingly by including relevant keywords/phrases within their titles. This will help boost your SEO ratings and increase traffic over time!
It’s also important to remember that every post doesn’t have to be categorized, especially if they all fall under the same umbrella.
For example: “How to Make a Pie Crust” is definitely something you would want to be tagged as one way or another, but there isn’t much point in adding it into the “Baking Recipes” category since this blog post will most likely be buried somewhere down below on your site where few people probably go!
If nothing else, at least make sure each of these tags can show up for readers when they do search through them (for instance, by including long-tail keywords/phrases within their titles). This might take some extra effort upfront but will be well worth your time in the long run!
#9 Guest posts
Guest posts can be a great way to expand your blog’s content while also showing potential readers that you have other people contributing to the site. However, this is where it gets tricky!
First of all – before reaching out to anyone – make sure they are actually interested in writing for your blog and not just using it as an excuse/opportunity (for free) to promote their own products or services.
This isn’t only unethical but will likely end up hurting both parties since most followers won’t take either one seriously anymore if they keep seeing these types of over-saturated links across each post!
If someone doesn’t want anything in return, then there’s no problem with bringing them on board; otherwise, move on to the next person!
Secondly, always be sure to proofread each of the posts before they go live on your site.
This might not seem like a big deal, but it definitely is if you’re trying to remain professional and post high-quality content that will attract new readers over time (and keep them coming back for more).
Finally, if something doesn’t make sense or has an error, don’t hesitate to ask your guest blogger to fix it before posting anything online. Otherwise, you’ll end up with some pretty bad reviews since everyone sees mistakes as unprofessional regardless of where they are found!
#10 Infographics
Infographics can be a great way to attract new visitors/readers since these are always an eye-catcher! However, they do need to be relevant and exciting for them to catch anyone’s attention. Otherwise, the only thing you’ll have going is something that your readers want nothing more than to skip over (and leave with bad feelings towards your site).
In conclusion, you can’t go wrong with any of these and should look into integrating each one as soon as possible – your blog will be all the better for it!
