STARTING YOUR BLOG PART THREE

In the second part of starting your blog we covered how to design and improve your blog readability. Today we will continue how to increase your blog popularity using search engine optimization and other techniques.

Proofread and edit your posts

Sloppy writing and obvious errors can undermine your credibility and distract readers from what you have to say. Before you publish any post, you should check it for spelling and grammar errors. All blog services include a spell check feature. You should use it every time you post.

You should also reread posts before you publish them. Once you've finished writing a post, take a break, then return to it later with fresh eyes. When you reread a post, check your writing to make sure it's clear and enjoyable to read.

Connecting with a blogging community

No matter what you write about in your blog, there's bound to be other people out there who are blogging about the same or similar subject. Becoming part of this community of bloggers is a good way to get more people to read your blog. People who know you and who share your interests are likely to read your blog posts and even recommend them to others.

Being part of a blogging community can also make writing your blog more enjoyable. When you're not sure who's reading your blog, writing can feel a little bit like shouting into a void. In contrast, when you're part of a community, you may feel like you're participating in an established discussion. Many bloggers like the feeling of writing for an audience of friends. How can you do that?

Find Similar Blogs

Comment on other blogs

Reach out with social media

Promote blogs you like.

MAKING YOUR BLOG EASY TO FIND

Even if you write the best blog posts on the Internet, you'll never get many readers unless people can easily find your blog. The internet is a big place, and making your blog stand out from millions of others is a challenge. Still, there are a few things you can do to make it more likely that new readers will visit your blog.

Help search engines find your blog with SEO

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is a set of techniques you can use to make your blog more visible to people who are using search engines. The more visible your blog is, the more likely it will show up in search results.

Most SEO strategies are based on the way you write your blog. For example, including keywords in your posts can influence the search results your blog shows up in.

Link to your blog elsewhere

A simple way to let people know about your blog is to link to it. For instance, you could send the link to your blog to people you think would enjoy it. To reach more people, you can use social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. You can post a link to your blog in your profile on these sites.

You can also use the networks' sharing tools to post links to individual blog entries which you think your online friends will find particularly interesting. You can create social networking accounts specifically for your blog— your blog's own Facebook Fan Page or Twitter feed. For people who want to keep their personal life separate from their blog, this can be a better choice than using your own Facebook or Twitter account. You can learn more about social networking sites on the internet.

Make your blog easy to navigate

When people visit your blog, they should be able to easily find the posts they're interested in. There are a few things you can do with your blog posts that will make them easier for visitors to find.

• Give posts descriptive titles, so that people can skim your blog and find what they're looking for.
• Organize your posts by subject with tools like categories, tags, and labels.

Your blog's design will also influence how easy your blog is to navigate. Design elements like layout, color scheme, and text size will all affect your readers' experience, so you should consider these things carefully. 

This is the end of our blogging series, if you want us to help you setup your blog feel free to contact us.