Tips for Improving your Blog in 2017
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Blogs are always evolving to keep up with trends, readers, and technology. If you’re looking to improve your blog in 2017, it’s best to look at the other successful blogs around the internet and see what’s been working for them.
Social media presence, dynamic designs, user friendly updates, and utilizing better photo and video are all attributes that a successful blog should have in 2017. In order to keep up, you’ll need to change and update your site regularly in order to help keep your readers engaged and to gain readership.
Stepping Up Social Media
Social media has been on a steady incline of popularity for years, so if you haven’t stepped up your social media presence, now is the time.
If you already have social media, make sure it’s visible on your blog. Include links to your social media, occasionally share your content on your various platforms, and encourage shares.
Consider your audience and don’t be afraid to have fun on your social media platforms in order to engage them. Make sure your blog is able to be viewed on all devices: desktop, tablet, and phone.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google Plus, and Pinterest are all social media platforms you should be utilizing, as long as they fit your niche. In order to keep up and ensure maximum audience interaction, create a social media map and organize your posts so you don’t neglect a platform.
Consider a Full Facelift
Honestly, many haven’t updated their blogs in years. If this is the case for you, it might be time to consider a whole new site, new content, a revamped design, and implementing new rules on your site.
Research the different website builders available to you and find the platform that suits your site best.
Create a new, revamped logo for your new site.
Relaunch your site with new content.
Get rid of any old blogging styles and attributes like centered text, hard to read text, large blocks of text, or unlimited scrolling.
Include photos with every post, answer all of your comments, create a schedule, write posts that promote shares, make sure you have a search bar, and take part in a community associated with your blogging niche.
Focus on design, readability, and engagement.
Update Update Update
Continue to update your site on a regular basis. Update your tabs, your content, your security, and your social media accounts. Stay engaged in your blog and your audience will have an easier time engaging with you.
Posting on your blog is so important. It doesn’t have to be every day, or even every week, but it should be consistent. Also, include a publish date on all of your blog posts. When constant updates seem daunting, look at creating a social media schedule and schedule posts ahead of time.
Link certain social media profiles to each other so you only have to post once and you’ll be updated on a few different social media accounts.
Be humorous, have a consistent voice, always consider your readers, and update often.
Utilizing Photo and Video
The true sign of an old blog is an obvious lack of photos and videos. Every single blog post should feature a photo.
The best practice is to utilize your own photos, but if you can’t do that, you can buy photos from an online stock photo site, or even utilize a free stock photo site – although you’ll see many of the photos you use duplicated across the internet.
The progress of online video has come a long way since YouTube was founded, and it’s important to take advantage of its steady popularity. Share videos on your social media platforms, utilize SnapChat, or create a YouTube channel in order to utilize all that video has to offer.
Instead of posting six blog posts per month, post four written pieces of content and two how-to videos. The way you utilize photo and video will vary depending on your niche, but it’s important to feature it in some way on your blog.
Everything on the internet is constantly evolving and your blog should be following suit. If you’re looking to improve your blog in 2017 the key is to stay current and continue to evolve.
Become a reliable presence on social media, revamp your blog completely if you need it, update everything, and be sure to utilize photo and video as much as you utilize content. Make everything pleasing to the eye, relatable, and dynamic and your readers will appreciate it.
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Yep. I have some updating to do. Beyond the tweaks I normally make all the time. Thanks for the tips, Chelsy, and give Boise my regards! (I grew up there.)
I look forward to seeing what you do, Hazel!
I will do that, Hazel! Boise is amazing, I just moved here a few years ago and fell in love with it.
I agree a blog should always be evolving. I find that blog owners feel they need to revamp their Design only and not revamp how they layout their posts. Adding images that are useable on sites like Pinterest and Instagram will give bloggers yet another avenue for sharing their site. Thanks for sharing.
Interesting point, Sabrina! Something to think about as I consider my future direction…
Definitely an ever-evolving landscape. It takes a lot of energy, and I don’t always stay up to date. While I agree with all of this, I do find that great content bubbles up, regardless of format. Once I enjoy a blogger, I will continue to follow whether they have bells and whistles or not. #loyalty
Confirming the popular statement that Content is King!
Yes, definitely an ever changing field is social media. Which is really good in a way because it keeps things fresh, and makes us think, instead of being robotic.
Yes, it’s easy to let our routines become ruts, which is neither fun nor productive!
I’ve been meaning to update my blog categories–I have too many of them! And I rarely use video. I’m going to have to put that on my blog update list for 2017–thanks for the reminder.
Cleaning up your categories sounds like a good project for a day when you get a last-minute cancellation!
As to video, I’m in the same boat. I’ve been resisting, but I know it’s becoming more and more important.
I started my blog with very specific categories that mirrored the chapters of my book. Over time, I’ve added new categories. My most recent new category added is “Mindfulness,” a new hot topic for me. I also agree about the importance of including photos and videos.
I started this blog with specific categories too. I’ve never changed them, but some definitely have more content than others! That may change in the foreseeable future… stay tuned!
Sounds like you’ve got some good plans. Can’t wait to see what you’re cooking up!
To improve my blog in 2017, I have to do a better job with my photos. I’m not creative, but I really don’t like to use stock photos, so I do my best with my own. I use Weebly as my website builder and I love it, but there is also no way to associate the blog post image with the post when you share on the different social media platforms, like there is with WordPress. I am trying to be patient with them on making this happen! 🙂
Nicole, there are a few sites that have gorgeous photos that aren’t at all like standard “stock” photos. Check out Unsplash and Pexels – you might be pleasantly surprised!
Thanks for the post! In my opinion, a full facelift is not recommended.
It really depends on the site, Joel. I’ve had clients come to me with sites that had so much of the design hard-coded that it was easier to start from scratch than to make changes to the existing theme, but others that only needed a few modifications to give them a fresh new look.