12 Tips Every Blogger Should Know
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IN THIS POST:
Blogging is so much more than just sitting down to write a blog post and hitting publish. There's lots of little things to do (or not do).
How do you make sure you're showing up on Google?
Should you post the date you publish the blog?
How do you help people find the information they need?
What happens when someone reaches the end of your post?
There's lots of ins and outs and you don't want to miss any of them. I saved the most meaningful tip for the end. It's definitely the most personal tip and will help to shape the flow of your content.
Be sure to do all twelve of these so you can increase the amount of time people are spending on your blog.
BUILD OUT THE LANDING PAGE
The default blog page from Squarespace is a little bland. It's basically just an overview of all of your blog posts. Not that engaging if you ask me... 😐
The first tweak I did to my landing page was add a Welcome section that not only explains what people can expect from the blog, but it also gives them a chance to sign up to get weekly Squarespace tips in their inbox.
HAVE CATEGORIES PEOPLE CAN SEARCH BY
Going along with the first point, you also want to have hyperlinks to categories so that people can see every post on that subject. I like to keep mine simple with just four categories, but you can have as many (or few) as you like. You also don't have to list all of your categories here. I have more categories that I use on the back end of my site, but these 4 are the main ones that all of my blog posts fall into.
It's ok to add categories as your blog grows, too. I think I started out with two categories and then the more I wrote, the more I found that I had a handful of posts on a certain topic. So I created a new category for that topic. I wouldn't recommend too many categories so that it doesn't overwhelm the reader.
ADD A SEARCH BAR
There are some people out there that I consider an authority on certain topics. If I need to know how to build something, I'm going to Bob Villa. If I want healthy dinner recipes, it's Ambitious Kitchen. We all have our 'go-to' people. Sometimes I go to someone's blog because I want to know every single thing they've ever written on a topic. Nothing frustrates me more than when there isn't a search bar!!
So, give the people want they want :) Add a search bar to your blog page so people can search for every thing you've ever written on a topic. Or it might be that they read something on your blog once and need to find it again. Whatever the case, search bars are great for user experience.
To add a search bar, just click Add Block and scroll to the bottom and select Search.
By default it will search your entire site. If you want it to only search the blog, then click the pencil, click Search Specific Page, and choose your blog. Click Display to choose the light or dark theme - which will depend on what your background color is.
If your blog images are vertical like mine, then the search results are going to chop off the top and bottom. By default, the image it shows is square.
The only way to change this is with some code. Copy this code and go to Website -> Pages -> Website Tools -> Custom CSS and paste it in the editor:
REMOVE THE DATE IT WAS PUBLISHED
Removing the date your blog post was published is a very small thing that makes a huge difference.
I remember the first time I got sucked into a blog for hours. I was just reading blog post after blog post without having a clue how much time was going by. I realized after a while, wait there's no dates on these posts! I had no idea if I was reading something that was 2 weeks old or 2 years old.
And you know what? It didn't matter.
All of the information I was reading was relevant and useful. Had I seen a date from two years earlier at the top of a post, I probably would have skipped that post and read something else. Our brains are trained to throw out things that have an old date... expired milk, cheese, etc. But your 'old' blog post probably still has valuable information in it!
You know how people lose track of time in casinos because there aren't any windows? Remove your windows (date stamps) from your blog so people can dive deep into your blog and stay for hours.
To remove the date, edit the blog post and click Edit Section and turn off the switch for Show Date. This will turn off the date on ALL blog posts.
USE A TABLE OF CONTENTS
A good blog post should be between 1,500 - 2,000 words in order to rank high in Google's search results. That's a lot of text to read! Which isn't bad, if it's good content... If I land on someone's blog post, I want to be able to quickly tell if there's anything in it for me before I invest the time to read that many words. A table of contents is a great way to easily let someone know what's ahead for them.
Plus, there are several times when I try to go back and find certain blog posts that I've read before. Instead of skimming the whole post to try to find it, a table of contents is a good clue if what I'm looking for is in that post or not.
PRO TIP: Be sure to use anchor links to link your table of contents to the section it pertains to. That way readers can jump right to it instead of scrolling.
INCLUDE LEAD GENERATORS
As I've mentioned in other posts, lead generators are the best way to grow your email list by giving valuable content in exchange for someone's email address. And what better place to promote your lead generator than on your blog post that has lots of eyeballs reading it!
In Part 3 in this series I explained the step by step process to create lead generators and incorporate them into your blog. If you don't include a lead generator, you're missing out big time.
INCLUDE RELATED BLOG POSTS
If people make it to the bottom of your post, it means they liked what you had to offer. You did something right to make them stick around and read hundreds (maybe thousands) of words. So they're going to do one of two things once they're finished reading:
Either click off of your website
Or click somewhere else that you direct them to
By adding a related blog post section, you're giving them even more useful content to help them out. The more someone stays engaged with your site, the more trust they build with you. It's your opportunity to say to them with another blog post, "See? I can guide you to what you want to achieve."
Not including a related blog post section is like being a waiter who never asks if you want dessert. If you have more goods, offer it to them!
This blog post shows the exact steps to include a related blog post section as well as the pros/cons to using images versus text.
INCLUDE OUTBOUND LINKS
One of the factors that Google looks at when determining where to rank your website is whether or not you have outbound links. Outbound links are links on your website that link to other websites. By including outbound links, you're telling Google, "Hey, I'm proving more value than just what's on my site." (Google likes that)
You may not know this, but every website has a domain authority. Domain authority is a score that determines how relevant your content is on a specific subject. The higher the domain authority, the more likely you are to rank higher on Google.
One of the key components in determining your domain authority are backlinks. Backlinks are inbound links to your site that come from other people's websites. So the more you link to someone else's site (an outbound link), the more likely they are to link to your site (an inbound link).
LINK TO YOUR OTHER POSTS
Another thing Google likes to see are internal links. These are links on your site that link to other pages on your site. The more blog content you create, the more content you’ll have that relates to other content you’ve written. Be sure to link to your other blog posts that are relevant to what you’re writing about.
For example, the 'table of contents' section a few sections up mentions creating anchor links. So guess what I linked to? My blog post on how to create anchor links.
PRO TIP: When you're creating links, never use a hyperlink for the word 'here'. Like, "Check out that post here". Google doesn't know what 'here' is. Neither does anyone else who's quickly reading your site and only looks at the hyperlinked word. Instead, rephrase it to say, "Be sure to use anchor links to link your table of contents to that section." Now you (and Google) know exactly what the link is about before you even click on it.
USE AFFILIATE LINKS
Affiliate links are a great way to earn a passive income. Passive income is income you earn with little to no involvement. For a lot of people in the web design world, that's selling website templates.
Affiliate links are links to other products. When someone purchases that product, you get a small commission as a way of saying 'thanks' for your referral. No matter what field you're in, there is bound to be a product you can link to. If you have a travel blog, there might be suitcases you recommend or a hotel or sunglasses. Anything.
I created this blog post of every product I use as a web designer so I could start incorporating affiliate links. Before I published it, I reached out to all of the companies to see if they had an affiliate program. That post not only gives a ton of value to someone starting out in web design, but it also gives me a small commission if someone purchases one of those products. There's no extra cost to the customer at all.
Most big companies have an affiliate program, but some have certain requirements (like size of traffic to your site) that you must meet before you can become an affiliate. Just google the company name and 'affiliate program' to see if they have one.
CREATE A SERIES OF BLOG POSTS
Another way to keep readers engaged is by publishing a series of blog posts (like this one!). Doing a series of posts serves several purposes:
It lets the reader know that you have a lot to say on a topic (you aren't just a one trick pony).
It encapsulates everything about that topic in one place so that they don't have to go searching for every blog post on a given topic.
It has a sense of completeness. It gives the impression that once you read the whole series you'll have a healthy amount of knowledge on that topic.
FOMO - the “fear of missing out” causes people to take action. Most people aren't going to just read one blog post when they know there are other posts in the series. Which, again, increases the amount of time they spend on your website.
And the nice thing for you is that you know what you're going to be writing about each week. Instead of coming up with a different idea each week, you know that for however many weeks you're going to be talking about that one topic.
USE YOUR OWN VOICE
Finding your own voice can be tricky if you're just starting out blogging. Should you be bubbly? Should you be professional? Should you make jokes? What’s going to appeal to people?
The answer is: You should be you.
People aren't just reading your blog because of the information you're giving them. They're on your blog because they like the way you deliver it. Maybe you're personable. Maybe you're sarcastic. Maybe you shoot straight to the point. Whatever it is, they've connected with you.
Let's say there's 100 people on your mailing list. There's going to be 100 different personalities with 100 different preferences. You cannot write (or do anything for that matter) in a way that will make 100 people happy. If you're sitting down to write your blog and envisioning 100 people, you will go crazy trying to find a style of writing that fits them all.
Instead, ask yourself who your target reader is and write to that person. For me, I envision my reader being a female who is probably DIYing her own site and is overwhelmed by what she doesn't know and wants a clear process to follow from someone who's already been down that road. So that's who I'm talking to when I write.
Is it possible that someone who falls outside of that parameter could land on my site and find it useful? Of course! I'm not trying to exclude anyone when I write - I'm just trying to focus in on one person to write to so that it helps me write more naturally.
Trust me, people can pick up on when you're not being yourself.
So be yourself - that's the easiest 🙂
I hope this series was helpful! Show off your blogs in the comments below.
Need a few tweaks to your Squarespace website? If you need help getting your site up to speed, sign up for a free website tweaks session.
Missed a post in the series? Here’s all of them:
Part 1: How To Create A Blog on Squarespace
Part 2: My Complete Step-By-Step Blogging Process
Part 3: 3 Elements Every Blog Post Should Include
Part 4: 12 Tips Every Blogger Should Know
*This post may contain affiliate links, so I may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on this site at no additional cost to you.