Blogging has become an important platform for those who love to explore new things and share them with people across the globe. With blogs, you can interact with the audience informally and share your perspective towards a particular thing. Undoubtedly, blogging is one of the best ways to connect a huge audience without going anywhere. Before moving further, let us see what a blog is.
What is a blog?
If we talk in simpler terms, a blog is a web page that is updated regularly with a genuine & true piece of content. It is generally managed by a single person who writes his/her personal experiences or opinions on different topics. One of the best things about a blog is that you don’t have to use a formal tone, you can share what you want by writing informally.
Even a group of people can also manage a blog by sharing their views on various subjects related to travel, food, politics, sports, health, science, etc. One of the important things to notice about a blog is that the content you’ll see will be in reverse chronological order. This means the newest post will appear first. It is done to keep the audience updated about what’s new is there on your blog.
Almost all blogs also have a comment section to know the views of the readers about a particular piece of content. It is also helpful in interacting with your readers and build a good reputation. By talking with the audience, it is likely that you might get an interesting idea for your next piece of content.
What is the purpose of a blog?
An individually managed blog aims to provide information to people about a particular niche in which the blogger is an expert. If we talk in a much wider sense, then a blog can also help make money once becoming popular and maintaining a huge client base.
Now, another role of writing blog is for businesses which is the most common. Numerous businesses have a ‘blog’ page on their websites that they update regularly with unique, engaging, and interesting content. The sole purpose of doing so is to ensure a strong online presence and let the target audience find them easily. The form of blogging where blogs are written for businesses is known as business blogging.
The importance of business blogging
Regularly updating blogs with relevant and engaging content on a company’s website will help search engine bots crawl it easily and find it authoritative to give high SERP ranking. This is the key benefit of regular blog updates for businesses.
When we see it in detail, high search engine ranking will assist in getting high and quality traffic on the website which in turn will lead to the generation of leads. Thus, we must say that business blogging has a direct impact on lead generation and sales.
With blogs, you can also interlink your webpages to provide much wider exposure and get high search engine rankings. One thing you must keep in mind while choosing the blog topic is that it should be relevant to your business’s niche and it must solve the purpose of readers. We must say that educational and informational blogs are the best.
How to start your own blog?
It is important to know that starting a blog is not tedious as some of you might think, but it is also necessary to put everything in the right place to be successful. In this section, we will tell you a strategic way of designing your own blog and maintain it to a good effect.
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What, why, and whom
Before doing anything, you must know what you want to write, why you want to write, and for whom you want to write. Creating a blog without any purpose will get you nowhere and all your efforts will soon go in vain. Thus, do consider jotting down the niche of your blog and create topics that you want to share with your target audience. To ensure long-term results, there must be a purpose for your blog.
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Choose the right platform
The first step to start a blog is to choose a blogging platform that you feel is the best for you. There are many such platforms in the market like WordPress, Blogger, and Tumblr. Select the one you like.
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Domain name
Getting your own domain name is better than getting a default subdomain provided by the blogging platform. It is important to choose a relevant and simple domain name that people can remember easily. Do not forget to consider the top level domain as well (TLD).
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Design
Now when you know the purpose, have finalized a blogging platform and got a domain name, the next important thing to focus on is the design. Along with the content, how your blog page looks also plays a key role in grabbing the attention of visitors and keeping them engaged. Thus, the design of your blog should be simple and easily navigable. It is advised to avoid a multicolor theme as it is never pleasing to eyes and might create a bad impact. Another point to consider while designing your blog is the font style. Keep font style readable and choose a different one for heading, sub-heading, and matter.
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The white space
Don’t forget to have enough white space in your blog design. It is of high importance to make sure that your blog looks professional and pleasing. This is an empty space between structural elements and can be of any color, pattern, or design. White space also plays a key role in ensuring that all elements of a blog appear distant enough to be easily identified. A blog with unorganized elements will create a negative impact.
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Must have
It doesn’t matter what your blog’s design is, there are certain elements that you must have in your blog. Header, footer, sidebar, search bar, a subscription option, comment section, and recent posts are key sections that you should consider having in your blog.
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Responsiveness is the key
Try to make your website design responsive enough so that visitors can easily navigate through. Try to add interactive elements so that visitors stay engaged and love to spend time on your blog.
These are the points that you must consider before starting your own blog and making it a success. Now, what if you already own a blog but are not getting enough attention that you seek to have. You must try doing things that we are going to tell you in the next section to make sure that your blog is doing well.
How to improve the design of your existing blog?
With a messy, unorganized, and unpleasing blog design will not give you a success despite having good content. Doing these simple things will be of great help for your existing blog and grab the attention of the target audience.
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Remove clutter
Untidy websites will make it difficult for visitors to navigate through the pages and they will move out quickly. Thus, it is important to have enough empty spaces (White Space) on your blogging site to make it tidy. If the same is the problem with you, then consider organizing it by creating white spaces. Look at your site as a visitor to identify where the problem is or ask your friends to do it for you.
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Engaging and unique photographs
Photographs are also a part of the content that you post on your blog and just like the content they should be unique & attractive. If you are not getting enough attention then using blunt, plain, & ugly photos could be a reason. This might also have a negative impact on your site’s design. It is advised to take photographs on your own wherever possible. This will not only improve the design of your blog rather it will make it more genuine and people will love it.
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Check font style and icons
There are many factors that decide what a good design of a blog will be. Some of those main factors include font style, font size, and icons. If visitors are not able to easily read the content present on your blog and finding the icons misleading, then you will never get what you wish to with your blog. Consider choosing professional icons and changing font size & style so that visitors can easily read your blog.
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Content
Sometimes we keep focusing on bigger aspects but forget to touch upon simpler ones. That’s where we lack and end up losing. Thus, posting bad content or misleading information on your blog will be a huge mistake. So be sure about what you are writing and posting on your blog. People want to read what is unique, genuine, and true as providing false information could be harmful.
Focusing on these 5 simple parameters in your blog’s design can do wonders for you. It is no doubt in saying that these factors will help you become a better designer for your blogs. Now if we take a closer look, then designing a blog does not only mean focusing on visual elements, but it also means the effectiveness of blog posts. For us, the structure of a blog post is also considered as a design. Let us see it in detail.
Essential elements of a blog post
To ensure the success of your blog post, it is a must to have a structured plan. Here are the elements to consider:
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Title
The first thing that anyone will see before reading a blog post is the title. It should be attention-grabbing, precise, and clear. A reader must get a gist of what is there in the blog after reading the title. This will help readers identify whether the blog will solve their purpose or not.
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Interesting start
Imagine reading something that might be captivating in the middle but is really boring at the start. After reading the initial paragraph, will you continue reading that blog further? There is a big ‘no’ from us and most of the readers also won’t waste their time in something that appears to be boring. So, to make people read the complete blog, it is necessary to have an interesting first paragraph. Only when readers love the starting, they will read the second section.
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Use subheading
Creating a blog never means just writing pages without any break, doing this will never help you out, even your readers might not even read half of what you have written. Pauses in between are as important as other elements are. The best way to keep your readers engaged is by using relevant subheadings in between. This will also improve the understandability of the content you’ve posted and readers will admire it.
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Visual content
Sometimes it is boring for people to only see the text all around and nothing else. Just like white spaces are important, having relevant & engaging images in between also holds the key. This helps readers understand the context of what you want to say and if they are satisfied, they will come again & again.
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The body
While designing a blog’s structure, we must not forget the main reason and that is to provide the information or your perspective on a particular subject. So, always maintain the information-packed body of a blog to solve the goal. You must include every important detail in the body so that readers will get complete information about what they are looking for.
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Keywords
What is the purpose of writing a blog when people won’t be able to find it? Yes, it is right. Imagine a situation where you are continuously speaking something and no one is there to listen. Will it be of use? No, it won’t be. Thus, you must use the right keywords in your blog post so that people would be able to find you easily. One thing you must keep in your mind while using the keywords is that they should relevantly and naturally fit in, don’t ever try to fit them forcefully as it will create a negative impact.
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Graphics
Graphical content is also considered an essential part of any blog and it must be included. Visual appeal is important for anything to get attention and for the blog, it is a factor that is addressed by search engine bots as well to ensure high SERP ranking. So, be choosy while adding any graphical content to your blog.
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Ask for what you want
Everyone wants to achieve something with their blog and it could be sales, comments, or subscription. So, you must have a call-to-action in your blog post that readers tempt to do. If you managed to convince people to take the action you want, congratulations! you got the success.
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Interlinking
It is necessary to follow all Webmaster guidelines and good SEO practices while writing a blog and one of them is interlinking. Providing relevant links in your blog post is also an important part. Encountering relevant and quality links on your blog will not only increase the trust of readers but also help in increasing search engine rankings.
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Meta description
It is a short snippet that precisely defines what your content is all about. A meta description is also of importance for search engine bots to crawl your blogs. You must create a relevant meta description about the blog to increase the chances of getting it opened and also to make it appear high in search engine rankings.
These are ten essentials of designing a blog and increasing the chances of getting success. You must consider these points and see how they work.
The bottom line
It takes a lot to be a successful blogger and one must take each & every step carefully to hit the right spot. You must know all the elements of a blog and where to place them right. There are huge numbers of bloggers across the globe but not all are successful and the reason could be any of those mentioned above. Successful bloggers closely monitor every single aspect and ensure that all are perfect. Thus, if you want to design your own blog and do well in blogging, you must follow this blog.