Whether you blog professionally or just for fun, it’s something that you are going to want to make sure you are doing right – and as it happens, that can be a little easier said than done. The truth is that running a blog is something that requires a lot of skill and understanding, and you are likely going to need to practice some of those skills in order to ensure you are doing it right. You’ll also need to be aware of everything that your blog needs in order to be successful.
In this post, we are going to take a look at some of the things that your blog might be missing. If you are worrying that your blog is not quite up to scratch at the moment, then the following might be some of what is missing. It’s a good idea to take a look at this and see if any of the following needs some work on your blog.
Google Analytics
At some point, you are going to need to work on your blog’s analytics in order to help ensure that you are doing it right, and that your blog is actually likely to find success. There are a lot of things that you might want to bear in mind here, but the main one is that you need to go and take a look at Google Analytics, and ensure that you have it set up on your site.
This is a simple thing to do with monumental consequences. Google Analytics is a free tool, but using it can help to make your blog a lot more popular and successful. Essentially, it gives you a wide range of information about your visitors – including demographics, where they are, and more, so you can then use this to tailor your content and site to those people more and more.
It’s easy to set up, but it can take a while to master – so you are going to want to ensure that you spend the necessary time doing that. As long as you do that, you are going to have a much more successful blog in no time, which is actually drawing in more of the people who are likely to already enjoy it.
Email Capture
You are going to need a way to get people to come back time and time again to your blog, especially if you are hoping to monetize it. One of the most powerful tools for achieving this is email capture. This simply means that you have a form on your site that people fill out in order to subscribe to your emails – and then you have the opportunity to carry out some awesome email marketing as necessary.
There are some things to bear in mind if you want as many people as possible to click on this and give you their email address. First of all, every extra box you add for them to fill in reduces conversion rates. So, in other words, only ask for what you really need – which in most cases, will just be their first name and email address.
If you like, you can also use a service that automates this whole process, thereby allowing you to add this box to your site so much more easily. Finally, experiment with where you will have the capture widget, as this is going to give you the greatest chance of success regarding getting as many sign-ups as possible.
An RSS Feed
Essentially, it’s vital to make sure that you have as many ways as possible for people to follow your blog. One of the oldest and best ways to do this is to ensure that you have an RSS feed. The great thing about RSS is that it is an essential infrastructure that pretty much every single blogging platform has as part of its vital functions, so you can be sure that you are going to want to use it. There will always be a subset of people who want to subscribe using RSS, so you may as well ensure that you are making it as easy as possible to do so.
Make sure that you are checking your RSS links for any potential errors, and that you are doing all you can to keep them updated. If it is not working, then there is hardly any point in having it there at all!
Comment Availability
Most blogs are only going to benefit from having the ability to host comments. Even if you are worried about it and whether or not it will work, or you are concerned about the kinds of comments you can get, you’ll find that having comments greatly increases the sense of the site being a community where people go and talk together – and that is often a major part of making a blog more popular.
If you are really worried about what comments you may receive – perhaps because you blog about something controversial – then you can set up moderation, so that you see every comment that gets written before you choose whether or not to publish it. This is a good balance to strike if you want to allow people to have their say, but also want to retain your blog’s tone overall. One thing’s for sure: having comments available does tend to lead to a greater readership in general, so that is absolutely something to bear in mind.
Strong Web Design
You have to make sure that you are thinking about the website itself, not just the blog, as otherwise you might well struggle to keep everything as it should ideally be. In other words, the web design needs to be strong, and you need to make sure that you are working on this as best as you can. If you are capable of doing that yourself, then great: you will want to focus primarily on ensuring that the site is quick to load and easy on the eyes. If you are unsure about doing it yourself, you can, of course, always hire professionals to work on it for you.
If you go down that route, it’s vital that you choose well. There are so many web design companies and freelancers out there, and it’s something that you need to make sure that you are choosing carefully, as it will make a profound difference to your website’s possibility of success all in all. If you check out somewhere like MemphisWebDesign.com you should be able to find some examples of the kind of company you want to help you out.
Great web design is hugely important for the success of a blog, so be sure not to overlook this if at all possible.
Social Links
Frankly, if you are not currently making use of social links in your blog, then you need to turn this around as soon as possible. This is the number one way that people are going to share pages of your blog, and it is therefore vital that you allow for this right from the start. Include links for every major social platform – there is no use in leaving any out for any reason. As long as you have social links on each blog post, your shares are going to be much higher, and this is exactly what you are looking for if you want a more popular blog. Simply including these icons on each and every page is a simple and effective thing you can do to ensure that your blog is much more successful in no time.
Images
While there are some blog styles that might suit no-images better than others, for most blogs, having some image or other is going to be essential. Images help to break up walls of text and allow the eye to rest as necessary, so it’s something that you are definitely going to want to be aware of if you can. If you are unsure about whether or not you have enough images, you can simply check the bounce rate of your pages – this will give a pretty good indication of whether or not people want to stay on a page, and you’ll find that playing around with how many images there are can really make a huge difference to this factor. Get your image count right, and you will be much happier with your blog in no time.
A Custom Domain
Finally, you really do need to make sure that you have a custom domain. This is often what sets you apart from the rest, and makes your blog look a lot more professional, so it’s something that you are really going to want to think about. Custom domains are something that can help you to make your blog a much more successful place on the web, but you need to ensure that you are choosing it well and that it is memorable, short, and that it makes sense for your blog and its contents. If you can do that, all will be well.
In Conclusion
As you can see, there are a few things that your blog might well be missing if it is not as successful as you would like. Be sure to take these into account and work on them as best as you can, and you should find that your blog is in much better shape overall. Get this right, and it will make a massive difference to how popular your blog is all in all.
