Up The Ante On Your Blog

Our host today is Samantha Peters. If you're interested in getting in front of the readers of Site Sketch 101, check out our guest posting invitation here.

The time for you to think seriously about the future of your blog is upon you. The Internet is accelerating so quickly that if you don’t upgrade and improve your content and appearance, you’ll fall by the wayside faster than you can say ‘page rank’. There are a number of tools out there that can help you streamline and simplify this process, from WordPress themes to SEO and social media plugins. No matter what the status of your blog is, it will be relatively inexpensive and supremely beneficial for you to implement one or all of the following three overhauls:

Update, enhance, and expand your content

Update your blog frequently, as this will keep your readers excited and will improve your SEO. In fact, updating frequency is often short listed as one of the most important factors in boosting a blog’s search engine familiarity. It’s also important to enhance your blog’s content by spending more time and effort on the actual composition of the posts.

Research your topics more thoroughly and provide links (inbound links if possible, as these also help with SEO) to relevant information sources. Focus on improving your writing style as well. A well written post with no media is more valuable than a poorly written one with tons of pictures and videos. Also, expand the reach of your blog by incorporating podcasts and other forms of interactive media such as video. And finally, encourage comments and discussions about the topics at hand. If people aren’t engaging with your content, you’ve got a problem.

Customize your aesthetic

The newest trends on the Internet are all about incorporating practical design and functionality into the aesthetic of a website or blog. With stellar content management systems like WordPress, the ability to customize your blog’s theme and graphic design and integrate widgets makes it one of the more competitive elements of blogging. And with good reason. Besides content and SEO, nothing is more important to the success of your blog than a consistent and compelling design. Experiment with as many different fonts, themes, modules, widgets and extensions as you need in order to make your blog’s content and appearance a perfect match. Ask for feedback and ideas from your readers, who may have extensive backgrounds in design.

Integrate social media plugins

Even if you’re not a prolific user of social media, incorporating its functions into your blog is very crucial. Many of readers probably do use social media on a regular basis and they will likely demand and appreciate the ability to easily share your posts. In addition to boosting your presence across the web, social media plugins allow you to network with other bloggers and experts in your field. WordPress and other CMSs offer thousands of these plugins to help you easily disseminate your blog and keep track of its analytics.

There are hundreds of ways to optimize and improve your blog, but many of them fall into varying degrees of the categories above. Remember, in revamping your blog, to focus on content, appearance, and outreach.