This article includes affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase through these links, I will earn a commission at no extra charge to you.
This article is designed to help bloggers in all stages whether they just started a blog yesterday or have been blogging for a while. Here are 10 tips to improve your blog! If you are a beginner some of these tips will definitely come in handy. Where ever you are in your blogging journey, I hope you find some useful tips in this article. Happy Blogging!!
Site Navigation & Layout
Site navigation is a simple, but very important aspect of blogging. When deciding on a layout for your blog, keep your reader in mind. No one is going to want to search your site for the one article they wanted to read. Most of the time, if they can’t find what they are looking for they just leave your site and find the info somewhere else. The last thing you want for your blog is to be confusing or hard to read.
Some ways you can improve navigation include adding menu items for the categories you blog about. By adding these, your readers will be able to easily find what they are looking for. An organized menu is especially necessary if you have a lifestyle blog. Some of your readers will only be following your blog for one or two of the categories you blog about and you need to keep these readers in mind as well.
Some other basic site navigation tips include:
- Try not to have a ton of ads people have to scroll through to get to your articles
- Use headings to break up articles into easy to read pieces
- Use bullets and lists to organize thoughts
Use Tools
Tools can be life savers if you use the right ones! When looking for tools to improve your blog, choose tools that save you time or energy. I highly recommend choosing a platform to schedule your social media posts. This allows you to sit down once a week and schedule out your posts. It also allows you a little more freedom during the day because you don’t have to worry about waiting to post things at specific times.
Plugins are also great tools! I use an Instagram plugin to connect my blog to my Instagram account. I have also used a Pinterest plugin. These plugins save you energy because instead of trying to find people to follow you on those platforms you can start with the readers you already have.
One of the best tools you can use for your blog is an email marketing platform. I personally recommend Constant Contact or ConvertKit. Both are easy to use and you can become an affiliate with them when you monetize your blog!
Build an Email List
Building an email list builds a direct line of communication from you to your community of followers and readers. An email lists allows you to connect with your readers, but it also gives you the ability to promote products or services directly to them. This is very important if you plan to monetize your blog in the future. Some things that can be promoted include: email courses, eBooks, consulting services, and physical products.
Email lists can immensely improve your blog traffic and can help you earn an income from blogging but you shouldn’t forget that people on your email list are receiving emails by choice. This means they can unsubscribe if they think you are constantly trying to sell them things. The emails you send should be useful to your subscribers.
At the end of the day, your emails should be about growing a relationship or connection with your followers. This leads to client loyalty and this is invaluable to the success of your blog.
Grow Your Social Media Accounts
Follow people on Instagram, friend them on Facebook, follow them on Pinterest! If you don’t take action and let people know you exist it will take a long time before you see success from blogging. Social media is how you show people what you’re doing and why.
Growing a social media account does take time so try to be patient. If you’re having trouble growing a following, I’ve found that people are more likely to follow back if you check out their account, like a couple photos, and leave a positive comment. If it’s really taking a long time, take a look at what you’re posting. Are you posting too many of the same kind of posts? Try to switch it up and see if this makes a difference.
A great way to gain followers is to do a giveaway. Everyone loves free stuff! When writing out rules for the giveaway, make sure you state that to be entered they must be following your account.
When posting, there are ways to make your posts discoverable. Always link your post with the location of where the picture is taken. This is especially important on Instagram.
Make sure your are utilizing hashtags! Hashtags allow people to find you based on what your post or account is about. On Instagram you can use up to 30 hashtags per post but if you use anymore none of them will work. Hashtags also work on Pinterest and Facebook. Whatever hashtags you decide to use make sure they are relevant.
Use Different Platforms
By ‘platform’ I mean social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, etc. Using different platforms allows you to reach different people that may be interested in your content.
However, you don’t need to be on every social media platform, just use the ones that make sense for your blog or website. Example: If you are a photography blog, you’ll want to use sites that allow you to show off your photos like Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.
You should also be willing to learn new platforms that your potential followers might use. Example: Tiktok is relatively new and has a ton of users. If you make video content you should get started on Tiktok even if you already use YouTube or Instagram for sharing videos. Its always good to diversify where people are finding your blog.
Maintain Consistency
As you improve your blog and gain followers, they will become familiar on the content you post. They will expect to see that content consistently. Maintaining consistency is important for building a brand around your blog. For blogging success you want to remain consistent in:
- The quality of content you produce
- The look of your blog ex. branding, colors, fonts, style of photos (if you use filters or presets)
- Social media account profiles–use the same description, logo, cover photo and profile photo (so when people find you on different platforms they know its you!)
Drive Traffic to Your Site
One of the measures of success for a blogger is how much website traffic they get. If people check out your blog and enjoy the content, they might subscribe to your email list. Which could mean, they could become a loyal follower. In order for that to happen, you need to get those people to your site. This should go without saying, but make sure you attach links to your posts on social media that lead to your blog. This is the simplest way to drive traffic to your blog and to improve your blog.
Offering freebie digital products is a great ways to incentivize people to follow or subscribe to your blog. Freebies to incentivize email sign-ups could include things like: checklists, planners, printables, and itineraries.
Pinterest is a sleeping dragon that you NEED to wake up to drive traffic to your blog. While some social media sites, like Instagram, block direct links from posts, Pinterest encourages them. Pinterest allows you to grow a following and create posts that link directly to articles on your blog. These direct links take the work out of finding your blog or articles which makes it easier for users to visit your site with one simple click.
Writing blog articles that solve peoples problems is a very effective method to get people to visit your site. Since the topic is something they are already searching or interested in they are more likely to read the article on your website.
SEO – Search Engine Optimization
SEO simply makes your site searchable by search engines like google. SEO is something I’m still learning about but so far I have found that Yoast (a plug-in on WordPress) makes SEO so. much. easier. The plug-in breaks down each aspect of SEO and describes what you can change about your article to make it more search friendly.
Disclosure: I am an Amazon affiliate. If you decide to make a purchase through this link on Amazon, I will earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
To learn more about SEO, I am currently reading SEO for Growth by John Jantsch. Click the link to see purchasing options for this book on Amazon.
Stay True to Your Mission and Purpose
Every blog should have a set of principles or a reason as to why it was created. My lifestyle blog focuses on travel, sustainable living, and creativity because these are the things that are important to me. Deciding what your blog should be about can be difficult. Especially if you have multiple passions or things you are excited about. If you can’t narrow down your blog to a niche consider making a lifestyle blog.
When blogging, there should be a logic reason for every decision you make for your blog. Each article you write should be relevant and so should your social media posts. Your blog should make sense and people shouldn’t have to try very hard to figure out what your blog is about.
Create original content that benefits your readers or future readers. Make your blog a valuable source of information that people want to read. Then the follower and subscriber growth will happen on its own. If something isn’t working on your blog don’t be afraid to restructure it if you could make it better! Having a strong vision is so important for blogging success.
If you need some inspiration, check out my post on: How to Make a Vision Board ✨
If you haven’t started blogging yet, check out my page on How to Start a Blog ❤
Create Digital or Physical Products
Creating digital products can improve your blog and really take it to the next level. Not only will people be more likely to subscribe to your blog but they will see that you have something to offer them.
Giving away digital products is a great way to grow your following but you can also sell digital products on your blog. Things like eBooks, online courses, and branding kits are great products you can sell to monetize your blog. Some digital products to give away could include: Itineraries, Checklists and Style Guides.
I am currently offering a free international travel packing list pdf when anyone subscribes to my blog. If you found this article to be valuable and want to stay up to date with the Creative and Ambitious Blog, sign up to receive emails below!
