A lot of bloggers make the mistake of thinking that they need to spend hours and hours improving their blog in order to draw more readers. While I totally recommend sitting down at least twice a year to review your blog format and design, there are tons of little ways to improve your blog that can really make a huge difference. Try 1 or all 14 of these simple ways to improve your blog today and watch your blog grow!
1. Make sure all of your social profile pictures and headers match
Your profile picture is the first thing that people will see when they click on your social media links. Making it consistent across the board will allow your readers to quickly recognize your brand and hit that follow button!
2. Pin a Tweet
Twitter recently released a new feature where you can “pin” a tweet to the top of your Twitter profile. Use this opportunity to pin your most recent blog post to the top of your Twitter profile, so that it’s the first thing people see!
3. Schedule 10 tweets
Gabby and I always see a strong correlation between our number of tweets per day and our daily page views! Hootsuite and Buffer are two great platforms that allow you to to schedule tweets ahead of time. Schedule 5 tweets a day for 2 days and see what happens to your page views!
4. Reply to blog comments
It only takes a few seconds, but replying to comments on your blog makes a huge difference! It’s a great way to start a conversation and really get people engaged in your content.
5. Comment on other blogs
By the same token as above, blogging is all about building community by engaging with others. The simplest way to do this is to comment on other people’s blogs. A simple (meaningful) comment can 1. increase exposure to your blog, 2. start a great conversation with other bloggers, and 3. make other bloggers feel great!
Gabby and I are part of a few commenting pods on Facebook, which is a great way to interact with other bloggers and have them interact on your blog.
6. Update your “About Me” page
Your “About Me” page is probably a little neglected, especially if you’ve been blogging for a while. Uploading a recent picture of yourself and making sure that the information on the page is up-to-date can really increase the personality of your blog.
7. Clean up your side bar
One of my pet peeves about blogging is a cluttered side bar! It can be tempting to add every available widget to your side bar, but this is a really great time to keep in mind that “less is more”.
Your sidebar definitely needs to include your picture, an “about me” snippet, a search bar, social media icons, and a way for people to reach your archives.
Once those have been established, don’t be afraid to add more widgets. But think about what you like to see in a sidebar when you visit other sites before you add! For Gabby and I, we have a small widget that displays our three most recent tweets, since we’re really active on Twitter.
If you’re a part of a lot of blogging groups or societies, you might want to add those widgets to your “about me” page as to streamline your main sidebar!
8. Pin Pin Pin
Pinterest is a fabulous social media platform that can really increase your page views. In fact, over 90% of our page views here on The Swirl come from Pinterest! I always read that some of the most popular blogs pin over 100+ times a day.
While this many pins a day isn’t feasible for most of us, even spending 5 minutes a day adding a mixture of other’s pins and your pins to different boards can really make a difference.
9.Create (or re-create) pinnable images for each post
One of the ways that we made Pinterest really work for our blog was creating beautiful images that enticed people to click on them! Pinterest loves long, tall images. Make your post title easy to read, and include a fun background image or graphic to entice readers.
Also make sure to have an awesome description with keywords in it. This way, Pinterest can figure out what your pin is about and show it to the right people!
10. Review old blog posts
Remember those blog posts that you wrote when your blog was just a baby? Maybe you started your blog a couple of months ago, or maybe your blog is 6 years old. Regardless, show those old posts a little love by making sure that any external links work, that the information is up-to-date, and that there are no typos!
11. Share those blog posts
Now that those old blog posts have been spiffied up a little bit, share ’em! Post on Facebook, add new pins to Pinterest, or even schedule a few tweets.
You’ve definitely gained new followers since you wrote those posts, so make sure that every follower gets a chance to see your articles!
12. Email a favorite blogger
It just totally makes my day to receive an email from a fellow blogger or reader letting us know how The Swirl has inspired or helped them in any way.
That one blogger whose photography you’re always drooling over? Let her know in an email! It will make her feel great and you might even start a great blogger friendship!
13. Reach out to a company or blogger
It never hurts to send a blogger or company a quick email to let them know that you’re interested in collaborating with them! It doesn’t have to be long or detailed.
Just let them know that you really love their brand and think that you could help them in some way – a collab post / vlog, a sponsored post, a social media shout-out, etc. You never know what might happen!
14. Comment on Instagram posts
A great way to grow your Instagram following is to make (meaningful) comments on Instagram. Just find a blogger that you like, like a few recent photos, and comment!
Chances are, she’ll notice your activity and follow back or like a few of your posts!
Do you have any little ways you like to improve your blog? I’d love to hear down in the comments! And have you signed up for our email list? We send quarterly emails (with fun giveaways!) and you’ll gain special access to our library of FREE printables! Sign up here.
