Your blog isn’t driving the traffic you want and you’d like to give it an overhaul. There’s no better time to do so. The following blog makeover techniques are backed by proven results and are based on the latest findings and the latest search engine algorithms. Go through each item on the list and see if you can’t give your blog a little pick-me-up to drive more traffic and make it far more effective. Of course, the definition of an effective blog is up to you.
Convert to a CMS & Find a Proper Theme
Even the big name bloggers are using content management systems like WordPress to drive more traffic and make theirs a more effective blog. WordPress, just to use an example, keeps your blogs organized and with widgets you can highlight your most recent blogs or the blogs with the most comments. You can then use SEO plugins to make your blog more search engine friendly. Talk about an effective blog. You’ll have the ability to monitor and manage comments, you can manage media and publishing your latest blog entries is easy. If you’re not on WordPress or a similar CMS, you’ll want to convert now before you start considering a push to drive more traffic.
Choosing Your Theme
There are many free and low-cost themes to choose from, right within the WordPress dashboard, to continue with our example. Make sure your colors jive with your main site and with your primary message. Use color and buyer psychology – red evokes more urgency but cooler colors like green and blue cause people to linger just a little bit longer. Choose the colors and then go easy. Simple in color and design is the name of the game when your goal is to drive more traffic.
Formatting
An effective blog is one that is read by many people. No one wants to read a big block of text. In order to drive more traffic, you’ll want to stick with short, concise paragraphs, and move the action along so that all of your readers make it to the end of the page.
Use bolded subheaders and bullet points to make the content even easier to see and digest on the screen. Speaking of screens, be mindful of your small-screened readers with mobile devices. Don’t write novels that they have to scroll or flip through in order to read. Your content had better be great if you want people to follow along with you. People have incredibly short attention spans and many will probably end up scanning your content anyway. Subheaders, bullets and short paragraphs make the content much easier to get through.
Popularity Breeds Popularity
If you have a popular blog, you’ll drive more traffic to that blog, if that makes sense. If your blog isn’t popular at the moment, you need to make it appear that way. Notify colleagues in your industry of your latest entries. This is also a good test of whether your content is good or not. If it’s not, you’ll surely hear about it.
Invite everyone you know to your blogs and encourage them to leave comments. You can also ask for comments at the end of each entry. Encourage a discussion. The more effective blog entries you write and the more comments your blog posts receive, the better you’ll be at trying to drive more traffic.
Embedded Social Media Icons
Every post you write should be easy to share on the latest social media platforms. These embedded icons are only a plugin away, if you’re using WordPress. When your posts get shared on Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites, you’ll drive more traffic and you’ll have yourself one effective blog.
Google Authorship
Google is encouraging all bloggers who want to drive more traffic to link their blogs with their Google+ accounts using the Rel=Author attribute. It’s easy to implement and Google even tells you how to do it on their Google Authorship page.
When you put this into place, you’ll have a more effective blog listing within the search engines. Each of your posts will include a photo of you, your name, your Google+ circle information and a link where readers can find more posts from you. These listings are proving to be highly-effective at drawing the eye, even when there are fresher listings on the page.
Your readers are waiting. Put these tips into practice and drive more traffic to your latest and every blog post. Then, whether your definition of an effective blog is one that earns more sales, expands your brand’s message or one that merely engages with your audience better, you’ll eventually reach your goal.
