Believe it or not, blogging is more than just creating content, engaging with readers, and curating a few social media accounts.
Your blog is more than just the words, images, and videos you share with the world. Your words need a proper home, so to speak.
The visual layout of your blog is one of the main factors that determine whether the folks who stumble upon your blog subscribe or not.
In other words, yeah, everyone judges a book by its cover these days…
1. Take care of your sidebar
You know the cliche with the closet you’re afraid to open because all the stuff shoved inside might come tumbling out and hit you on your head?
That’s what a lot of WordPress sidebars look like.
Lots of ads, social media icons and/or feeds, links to your most recent tweets, photos of your Facebook fans, and on and on. Somewhere among all that information might be a link you’d really like your site visitor to click on, but if they can’t find it, you might as well not have it there.
The solution?
Go into Appearance – Widgets and remove everything except the widgets that actually do something for your business or your cause.
If a widget doesn’t add people to your list, put money in your pocket, or get someone to take an action you’d like them to take, remove it.
2. Take advantage of titles and descriptions
When you share your posts and pages on Facebook, Twitter, etc., these services pick up a page title and description to go with the link you share.
And when your page turns up as a result in a search engine, the title and description are what people use to decide whether or not to click on your link. Page titles are also an important element for search engines.
That makes the title and description some of the most important text on your page!
Remember, descriptions are mainly for readers. Don’t try to cater to Google robots with these — instead, make them enticing, elaborate on the promise made in your headline, and use a strong call to action to encourage clicks.
3. Put your images to work for you
Images add beauty and interest to your pages. They can have a search engine optimization job to do, too.
Every time you upload an image to your website, you have the opportunity to add a keyword in your image title and alternate text fields.
What are those, you ask?
The title tag for your image generates the helpful little text that appears when someone hovers over that image.
And if for some reason the image is unavailable — or your reader is using an assistive device to view your web page — the alternate text tag is the text they’ll see in place of your image.
Again — they need to make sense. And make sure the alternate tag accurately describes the image you’re showing. This isn’t a place to stuff random keywords, it’s just another way to make it crystal clear what your site is about.
7. Don’t forget about the footer
Down at the bottom of your WordPress site is the sometimes-forgotten footer area.
It’s where you can include a copyright message, a link to an important page, or information about who owns your website.
Remember, people scroll down to the footer to see who’s behind a site, so give them what they’re looking for and continue to engage them in this important space.
Start off on the right foot
Relationships work best if they get off to a good beginning. That goes for your relationship with your blog or website, too.
Have a burning question? Don’t be shy.
You’re a sweetheart
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Thank you.Enlightening.So much to learn
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Hi. Thanks for another great informative post. Very helpful. Each post is a great reference point and much read. Have a great day. Goff
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Hi..it was a informative read. What do you prefer using: wp.com wp.org for your website?
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WordPress.com
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Reblogged this on Writing for the Whole Darn Universe.
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Thank you 🙏🏽 very helpful
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Honestly, I’ve seen so many blogs I was interested in reading, but a minute I saw their layout I was out. And I know we shouldn’t judge a boom by its cover, but come on… The way you present yourself matters.
Thank you for this beautiful post!
P.S. My blog is still a work in process so yeah… Will need some time to make it look even more “perfect”
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Great blog post! How are we able to add the alternate text to pictures?
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You can go to your WordPress Admin, Media – Library, then select the image you want to add an alternate text and fill in the Alt Text tab right there. The same option appears when you upload an image.
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Thank you for letting me. I will try this out for my next post.
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Thank you for those wonderful tips. Actually I am also a beginner and I really needed that kind of help. I will post my first article very soom and I hope its as good and helpful as yours.
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Your site looks great. Take the advice of a recovering perfectionist who was once analysis-paralyzed and just start. You have to start somewhere and the sooner you start making mistakes the faster you’ll learn. Bonus: WordPress reader is such a lovely supportive community, and/or at first, hardly anyone will see your blog — so you can mess around freely. :)) Good luck and happy publishing!
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Thank you so much.
Ill surely take your tips into consideration and start writing as soon as possible
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thanks for your guidance . i’m not a writer and never wrote anything before that which i posted, “he proposed me” is my first story . i don’t know how to write even my english also not good . i will try to read all your articles and follow you.
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Thanks for the advise! Good post!
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You make very good points here. I can see where I can also improve in my blog. Thank you for the post.
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Thanks! I am bookmarking this!!!
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I really enjoyed your articles. They are very inspiring and well versed.
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Thank you!
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I never knew that about the alternate text for the post images. Very cool tip and great article, thanks for sharing!
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Awesome tips will apply them.
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Thanks for the excellent advice like always. Not quite sure I still qualify as a beginner but life is all about learning.
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Thank you, Athena.
We always learn. The more we know, the more we realize how much is there to be learned.
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Indeed.
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I use my own photos. Often many of them, and never gave their texts two thoughts. I will now. Thank you Cristian for sharing these ideas.
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My pleasure, Deborah!
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As a beginner blogger these tips are great, thank you
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Thanks
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Thanks.Delivering education is Greatness.
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Thank you, Zahid.
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Thanks for this information. I am definitely going look at my side bar with new eyes now.
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