What features do all great blogs have in common? A great structure from which awesome things can be built upon.

It All Starts with a Solid WordPress Platform

No doubt that WordPress is a serious CMS, but you still need to maintain it for the best possible blogging experience. You can keep it rocking by:

  • Keeping your WordPress software up-to-date (Google will be checking and dropping sites who are not in compliance)
  • Choosing the best-in-class plugins that are written and maintained by reputable developers
  • Watch out when installing themes (some free ones – not all – are riddled with inefficient code, malware, and spammy links)
  • Bonus Tip: Investing in the best hosting you can afford so your blog runs speedy

A Great Design is A Must

Your mother was right — first impressions do count. An eye-catching professional design will go a long way toward:

  • Showing you are serious about your blog (and care about your readers)
  • Branding you (and your company) properly
  • Attracting new and repeat visitors (who may be encouraged to subscribe to your content)
  • Bonus Tip: if you can’t afford a custom design, find a great off-the-shelf theme that you can tweak 

Make it Easy to Find Information

Help your readers to easily travel through your blog. You can do that by:

  • Developing intuitive navigation (for example a dropdown menu) to display content of interest
  • Creating sidebar widgets that display popular or “must read” posts, a tag/category/topic cloud, archives, etc.
  • Highlighting posts visually (in a slideshow for example)
  • Bonus Tip: Adding a site search is always helpful especially as posts fall off the home page

Tell Us Who You Are and How We Can Reach You

Visitors will turn into customers if they like and trust you. Make sure we know by:

  • Writing a great About Us (or About Me) page
  • Adding a Contact page that includes a phone number and physical address
  • Sharing what social networks that can we connect with you on as well
  • Bonus Tip: Don’t display clickable email address that can be fodder for spammers, but set up a contact form instead

It’s Content that Keeps Them Coming Back

Readership and subscribers grow when you keep feeding that blog. Consider:

  • Trying to publish posts at least once a week (3 times or more a week is a lofty goal, but that may not work for you or your company)
  • Developing a unique voice so that readers know what to expect when they read your content
  • Creating an editorial calendar so you can keep the content ideas flowing
  • Bonus Tip: Include RSS / newsletter subscription options so visitors can get your content without having to remember to visit