When you first embark on your blogging journey, you don’t always know where you’re going to end up. Sometimes, you start things as a complete hobby, and you never really expect things to take off in a different way. But sometimes they do – because blogging can turn into a very real business venture. At the same time, you may also begin with every intention of starting a blog as a business. When that’s the case, you tend to be a bit more serious about things from the beginning. Either way, you’ll reach a point where you realize you need to stand out.
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So, you need to make yourself shine – but how exactly are you going to do that? At first, you may have been okay with your simple template and your sporadic posting schedule. But before long, you realize that you need to up your game a little bit. Because you’ll see that your competition is fierce and to grow, you need to be up there with the best of them. And when it comes to your website, you have to work on it and work on it to make sure it happens. Because your website really is your business, and it needs to showcase you, as a blogger, in the best possible light. So, let’s take a look at the thirteen ways it should shine.
It Should Be Personalized
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First of all, your website should be all about you. You’re not going to want to share it with anyone else, so even if you started out with a domain like .wordpress.com, it’s time to let it go. Because it has to be all about you – whatever your blog name is. To look professional, you have to buy a personalized domain – and an email too. No buts. It’s easy to think that you can go on with what you have, but it will only take you so far.
And Completely On Brand
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From here, your blog also needs to be all about you in the sense that it looks and feels like something you would create. Whether it’s for a business or your own personal blog, you have to style it within your own brand. From the design to the language you use, it has to be right if you want it to succeed. Your readers should know what to expect from you every time they land on your site and branding will do that. So get your website on brand, and you’ll see results.
The Design Should Be Exciting
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Now, you need to be looking at your design. Is it exciting? If not, it needs to be redone. Because not only should your web design be in line with your personal brand or your business branding, it has to be plain awesome too. No reader is going to want to land on your blog and find it difficult to look at. They want it to draw them in! So shake things up and get exciting with what you have.
But Also Easy To Use
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At the same time, your readers need to be able to get around your site easily and access everything they need without experiencing any issues. For this, you need to be really thinking about the user journey. Don’t make it hard for your readers to find your content or access information. Instead, it has to be super easy for them to use so that they keep on coming back.
You Should Encourage Your Readers To Keep On Reading
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Next, you need to be thinking about keeping them on site too. Because you don’t want people to reach your homepage or a particular post and then drop off. You want them to keep on clicking their way through your site. So click sexy titles and pages, links and added extras are what you need here. You need to make sure that you hook your readers and make them want to read more and more and more!
Your Content Should Be Electric
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That leads us nicely to the next point – which is all about your content. And it needs to be quality. You want your readers to come to you because they love what you write, or the topics you cover. Don’t always reproduce what’s already out there, or publish a post because you feel like you have to. Always strive to improve your content and make sure that you’re entertaining, educating, or informing your readers with everything you have on site.
And Every Link Should Be Relevant
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At the same time, you also want to make sure that whatever you write about, that you’re matching it up with the right links. They have to be relevant. You know that you need to be linking in posts to keep them entertaining – using imagery too. But be selecting. In order to add value to everything you write, you need to make sure your readers or customers will care about the links you’re adding.
But Every Post Should Be Relevant Too
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And, of course, every post that you publish has to be relevant too. Don’t write about things that your readers won’t care about, just because others are or because you got something for free (bad move BTW). Instead, create a content calendar that’s based on topics and ideas that you know your readers will love.
Your Application Of Analytics Should Be Second To None
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If you’re wondering just how you’re meant to do the above, then it’s time you got to know a little more about analytics. Google analytics can be invaluable to any website – even your blog. You can get a lot of information and data that will help you to improve your content going forwards. Not only can you see what pages and posts your readers tend to go to the most, but it also tells you a lot about what they expect from you.
So Should Your SEO
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From here, it’s on to SEO. Because you want your site to be optimized if you’re going to rank highly in search. So you need to start working on optimizing your posts. But you need to make sure you’re doing it naturally and not writing posts or cramming them with spammy keywords just for SEO. There has to be a balance between quality content and good SEO.
Any Products You Launch Should Meet A Need
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At some point, you may also find that you want to launch a product or two. Because although you can make money blogging in a range of different ways, products are a strong option when you want to earn well. But, you have to ensure that they are going to meet a need that your customers have – and that they’ll buy them. Your data here will, once again, be essential to making it happen!
Your Social Profiles Should Be Easy To Find
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And don’t make it super impossible for your readers to find you on social media. You want them to follow you, so that they can keep on coming back for more content. For this reason, you need to share your social accounts on your website (ideally in an icon format) and have them clearly visible on your site.
Along With Your Contact Details
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Finally, you also need to ensure that your contact details are easy to find too. So don’t make it a mission for people to contact you. After all, if you want to work with brands or even advertisers, they need to be able to contact you – and they will get put off if it’s hard for them to do it.