Five Important Tips For Bloggers

If you are new to blogging or just want to spruce up your existing blog, I have some important tips for bloggers that you may find helpful. If you haven’t even started your own blog yet, you may want to start with how to start a blog first.

I have been blogging for over several years now and have learned a lot of helpful tips along the way. Watching my blog grow in traffic and followers has been an exciting journey that I am happy to continue.

Out of everything that I have learned, there are five most important tips for bloggers that will ensure that a blog is successful.

Tips For A Successful Blog

The following tips for bloggers will get you well on your way to creating a successful blog.

1. Content Is Key

It is important to write posts that stick with the main theme of your blog to keep readers coming back. They were drawn to you for a reason and generally like to see more of the same. You will also want to stay consistent with the number of times you are publishing new posts. Huge lapses in time will leave you forgotten as readers search elsewhere. Keep all of your content fresh by linking some relevant older posts to the current post that you are publishing. In WordPress, it can also be helpful to have a Related Posts Plugin which will automatically list some of your other posts with common categories or tags.

2. SEO – Search Engine Optimization

Writing great content is the first step. Having people find it is the next crucial step! Use relevant keywords in your title, links and headers that people would naturally search for to find your post. Use Google’s Keyword search tool to help you come up with the best words to use. Look for words with the least amount of competition, especially for new blogs. It’s also a good idea to try and keep your posts over 300 words for better ranking.

There are also some crucial plugins that you will want to install and use for better SEO. Find out what they are at Five Essential Tried And True WordPress Plugins.

3. Simple Blog Design

The easier your blog is to navigate, the more likely people will come back. Think about going to a library or store where you want to find specific items. If the shop is all disorganized and you can’t find what you are looking for, would you come back? Also readers are use to seeing a blog in a common format. For best results, keep the navigation at the top, sidebar on the right, and search above header. If someone visiting your blog sees a familiar format, they will be less confused and will feel comfortable navigating.

4. Quality Images

This is a biggie! Get the best camera you can afford. Take a class or two in photography…if needed. And…use photo editing software. I love Adobe Photoshop for tweaking images. A picture says a thousand words and it is especially true in blogging. Most of the time readers are drawn to photos and scan over the written word.

Besides having quality images, you will want to optimize them before loading into blog. It’s easy to do this using Photoshop. When you go to save an image, click on Save For Web. This is where you can choose the way an image is saved. For the most fast loading speed, save the image as a jpeg. I like to use medium quality. This is also where you can change the image size. The smaller the size you use, the faster the load time.

If you don’t have any photo editing software, you can still optimize images easily with a WordPress plugin. The following plugins are good options.

5. Get Social

Probably the best way to get the word out about your blog is through social media. I highly recommend having a Facebook Fan Page and Twitter account to start. I find that people comment and share from my Facebook page almost more than my blog, bringing me new traffic. Google Plus has really taken off as well and is another great place for sharing. If you have a lot of images, you have to have a Pinterest account. Pinterest brings me the most social media traffic.