Visiting of blogs by other bloggers is a normal routine for bloggers. We need to know what’s happening in the rest of the world and what’s the latest trend. It is also a good way for us to interact or networking in order to foster relationship. Beside publish good content and social networking, sometimes we tend to miss out small details which hinder readers visiting experience to our blogs.
I have experienced in visiting some blogs which i like the content produced by the blogger. But i am thinking if the bloggers are able to add some additional details on his blog, it will actually make me stay longer. You can find below small details you should have done which will enhance your blog.
1. Have a Fast Loading Page Speed
If your visitors need to take ages to load your site, most likely they will leave your site without waiting for the page to finish loading.
Suggestion: Use a reliable hosting company. Change to SEO wordpress themes. Deactivate unused plugins and reduce usage of images and videos. Install W3 Total Cache for speed optimization.
2. Have a About Page
You need to have a about page for your readers to understand who you are and what your blog is all about. Almost all bloggers understand the importance of having a about page yet there are some who don’t have a about page or they don’t update it.
Suggestion: Write about your experience, interest, expertise and goals in your about page. You should be truthful as who you are and do not give any false information. People will know.
3. Have a Archives Page
Every posts produced originally by you is special and should not be kept under the dust. Have a archives page for your visitors to scan through and keep them longer at your site.
Suggestion: If you know coding, you can hard code to your theme files. Else you can use some plugins available. I am using Clean Archives reloaded .
4. Show Your Most Popular Post
Some of your posts gather the most comments and widely discussed by your visitors. They shouldn’t be hidden and these posts should attract your new visitors to read them.
Suggestion: You can hard code to your theme files if you know how. Else you can use plugins to achieve that. I am using WP-Popular Post Tool.
5. Update your Old Post and About Page
Just because your old posts has been thrown into archives doesn’t mean that you can’t reborn it with life. The internet world is changing every now and then. You should take note of the changes and update the new information including your about page.
Suggestion: Find some time to go through your archives and about page, update it or rewrite to become a new post for you.
6. Have a RSS Button and Email Option
You should include a RSS icon and email option to make it easy for your visitors subscriptions.
Suggestion: Register a account with Feedburner. It’s convenient and easy to use.
7. Reward Your Commentators
Your visitors took time to comment on your post and you should reward them with a link back to their site.
Suggestion: Install plugins such as Top Commentators plugin or Comment Luv.
8. Learn Some Basic CSS and HTML
In order for you to customize your theme, you should pick up some basic CSS and HTML to modify your theme.
Suggestion: You can learn some of the basic CSS and HTML in W3School.
9. Categorize Your Blog Posts
Do not leave your blog posts uncategorized. Try to organize your blog posts to different category.
Suggestion: Categorize your blog posts for better and easy navigation for your visitors.
10. Have a Search Form
Most of the themes now include a default search form for you. Add a search form if the theme you are using does not have it.
Suggestion: You can use a Google custom search or simply use the default WordPress search form. It allows your visitors to easily search for the things they are looking for.
11. Add Page Number For Your Blog Post
It’s easier for your visitors to navigate to your old posts with page numbers instead of showing “Older Posts”.
Suggestion: Install WP-PageNavi plugin if you don’t have a default page numbers in your theme.
12. Show Related Post at The End of The Post
Show your related posts at the end of the post in order for your visitors to explore on your old posts.
Suggestion: Install yet another related post plugin. It gives you a lists of posts or pages related to current entry.
13. Add Breadcrumb to Your Navigation
Not many blogs have breadcrumb in their navigation. They are simple link trail on top of a web page which look like this Home->Page->Subpage
Suggestion: You can install Breadcrumb NavXT for your blog. Do note that Breadcrumb require PHP 5
Share Your Thoughts
These are the 13 small details you should have done in your blog to enhance your blog. It makes easier navigation for your visitors and enhance their staying experience in your blog. What do you think of the details listed above? Do you have other small details that you can think of? Please kindly share it with us.
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Really great posts and tips to improve your blog Lye,
One thing that irritates me most on blogs is the loading speed, if a blog is too heavy and takes longer to load I will exit the site at once. Another important thing many bloggers neglect is their about page.
I haven’t implemented some of these things on my blog and I will be working them out on my blog soon.
Thanks a lot for the great post,
-Onibalusi
Onibalusi Bamidele recently posted..Blogging with Style- How to Manipulate Your Writing for Success
Hi Oni,
You are right about the loading speed and the about page. All these should be done when the blog is up to smoothen the visitors navigation. I am glad some of the tips will be useful to you.
Thanks for visiting and the comments.
I’m with Onibalusi on this. Page speed and having an About page are so important.
W3Total Cache definitely is a great tool! Unfortunately after my upgrade, broke my site so I had to uninstall it. Have to resort to other methods to work on speed.
As for the About page, it’s one of my top viewed pages as well as being a top indexed page by Google. Many people don’t realize the importance of this page and tend to give it little thought.
It is also a prime opportunity to insert a call to actions such as a opt in form or link to your services page.
Great post Lye. Really some great information!
BTW, there’s nothing small about these details.
Michele recently posted..WordPress- The Website Software of Choice
Hi Michele,
You can try using WP Super Cache if WP Total Cache doesn’t work for you.
You are right about the speed and the about page. These are the important factors that will turn visitors away if not done properly.
Thanks for taking the time to visit and comments Michele. Talk soon.
Hey Lye,
Thanks so much for the reminder… just installed it and seems to be working fine….yeah!!
I had read mixed reviews about it a while back, so just didn’t think to reconsider it.
Thanks again for the tip… appreciate it.
Michele recently posted..WordPress- The Website Software of Choice
Everything shared here was right and good. I think, the choice of theme of a blog is important. Because the appearance of blog will add more attraction to readers.
Prajeesh recently posted..Google’s Acquisition Map InfoGraphic
Hi Prajeesh,
You are right, themes play a big part of it. There are free and premium themes and each has its pros and cons. Just choose one that suits your needs.
Thanks for the comments. Talk to you soon.
Twitter: RyanBiddulph
Hi Lye,
Setting up an RSS feed has enhanced my blog significantly. If readers can’t subscribe to your blog they rarely pay a return visit.
A helpful tip about learning CSS and HTML too. I took a few college courses on HTML many years ago and had to dust off my basic coding skills when new to blogging.
Thanks for sharing your insight.
Ryan Biddulph
Ryan Biddulph recently posted..How to Slap Your Next Blog Post Out of the Park
Hi Ryan,
I agree. RSS is too useful for bloggers to ignore it. Learning CSS and HTML definitely helps if we need to customize the appearance of our theme. We should spend some time to learn some basic understanding on CSS and HTML.
Thanks for your support Ryan. I appreciate that.
Hi Lye
This is awesome, bro. I love every point. I have take a lot away from this, for example, I need an Archives page, show related pages, and show my popular post. Going to go fix that up now.
Thanks for sharing these very useful tips.
Michael
Michael recently posted..How To Turn Your Readers Into Buyers
Hi Michael,
I am glad these are useful to you. The ones that you mentioned definitely helps in making your visitors stay longer to explore your older posts. And i believe they will be interested to find out more if they can access easily.
Thanks a lot for your support bro.
Twitter: fungiftidea
Fast loading page speed, is the most important factor for me. I don’t want to waste my time waiting for the site to load if I can easily look for another site. Another one is how you reward your commentators. You really need to put something beneficial for them in order to get benefit from them too. Example of which are plugins like commentluv and keywordluv.
Cole Stan recently posted..Anniversary Gifts for Men – Rock His World with These Romantic Gifts
Hi Cole Stan,
Welcome.
Thanks for voicing out your views. I really appreciate that.
Twitter: fungiftidea
In addition, it’s also important for me to have a cool web design. Since first impression last, at least have a eye catching design that will appeal your site visitors. Definitely, they will be interested in checking more of your post.
Cole Stan recently posted..Anniversary Gifts For Men – Rock His World With These Romantic Gifts
Whad up Lye! Great points you proved here! Man you are right. The major thing that can hinder a reader is the loading of the site bcos nobody would love to visit a blog that don’t load fast also your about page is mandatory. Am lacking something which is the archieve page! Have created the page but i dnt know how to link my old post to the page! Any help ?
Hi Samuel,
I am not sure regarding the hard coding to your theme files. I am using “clean archives reloaded” plugin. You can try that out if you wish. Hope that helps.
Thanks for visiting and the comments bro.
Those are some great ideas Lye, going to work on them now. Nice to connect with you
Love the blog.
Hi Ben,
Welcome. Nice to see you here.
Thanks for the kind words and comments, talk to you soon.
Wow.. Lye.. this post is awesome..
These 13 ideas can really enhance the performance of any blog.. thanks for sharing it with us..
talk soon
Hector
Hector Cuevas recently posted..7 Limiting Beliefs That Are Robbing You From Your Online Success
Hi Hector,
Thanks for the kind words and comments. I appreciate your visit and support. Talk soon.
Hi Lye
Came over here from a blog you commented on and really like the tips you give us newbie bloggers. I have implemented most of what you suggest but haven’t done a couple so need to go back to my blog and add another couple of plugins.
I am a baby boomer so unlike you Gen Y who know so much about computers I find the techie stuff hard. I have got otherts to do my html codes so far. Thanks for the recommendation where I can learn about it.
Patricia Perth Australia
Patricia recently posted..Lavender Health-Lavender in treatment for hair loss
Hi Patricia,
Nice to see you here. You are too kind. I am still learning too, in fact i got much to learn. What i have learnt is some basic, i need to seek for help too if i need some coding advice.
Glad to know that this post is helpful to you. Thanks for taking your time to visit and comment. I really appreciate that. Hope to see you around and talk soon.
thanks for the list!
i am not so techie
and if you can help me
with my blogsite
that would be sooo nice.
will it help if i say
that i might be eyeing
as your top 5 commentator?
thanks!
bendedspoon recently posted..You’ll see it when you believe it
Hi bendedspoon,
Looking at the speed that you have commented, you should in the top 5 soon. Thanks for your continuous support. I appreciate that.
ahaha
that’s a great motivation
i do appreciate your entries
and the open discussions
bendedspoon recently posted..You’ll see it when you believe it
The main factor I have to consider is my blog speed, I think it takes long time to load, other points, I have cleared with it..
Viral recently posted..4 Approach to Boost Number of Retweets on Your Blog
Hi Viral,
You can consider my suggestion to improve your loading speed. Hope that helps.
Thanks for visiting. Talk soon.
Lye!
Without doubt my friend – this is one of the best posts I have read on the details required for a good blog. Definitely one that I will be referring back to later – AND I think a trackback will be coming your way too
Awesome Lye – seriously!
Alex recently posted..4 Essential Blogging Tools to make life easy
Hi Alex,
I am glad that you regard this post as one of the best. This is such a big compliment from you. You are too kind. Thanks a lot for referring this post. I really appreciate that.
Thanks for dropping by and commenting. Talk soon.
I added breadcrumbs to my blog just 3 days ago and I’m looking at also adding the previous and next posts navigation links too
.
I’ve used many cache plug-ins but none of them compares to W3 Total Cache with it’s CDN function etc. Simply amazing
.
Udegbunam Chukwudi recently posted..Top 9 Ways Of Getting Your Website Crawled Faster
Cool blog dude.
Thanks for the useful stuff, I keep looking for this kind of info.
All your 13 steps were very useful to me.
However, allowing commenting on blogs gives us so many ideas, tips and advice to improve our blogging stuff.
Alex Smith recently posted..Secret Technique to Make Money by Blogging
Twitter: Findmyblogway
Hi Alex,
Glad this is useful to you. Thanks for the comments.
Lye
Browsing a site which takes forever to load can be an annoying experience. There are many other blogs which provides the same information and visitors can always switch over to some other site so in order not to lose visitors we should lay importance on fast loading page speed.