Usability Tips For Bloggers

Usability is key for your readership. Here are some tips to keep you on track with keeping your blog in order. Let me know which ones you liked in the comments section. Thanks!

Tip 1 – Ask for comments.

It is key to ask for comments in your posts. How often do readers just scan through your post and bounce? If you remind them to comment they just might. It makes sense.

Tip 2 – Respond to comments.

How often have you commented on a blog post expecting a response and been denied that? Your readers expect a response in a timely manner and do get offended when they don’t get one. Make it your first priority to get back to your readers or they will leave your blog in the dust.

Tip 3 – Make it easy to subscribe

If someone likes reading your blog, chances are they are going to want to subscribe to it. Making it as easy as possible to accomplish this is key. I suggest placing your rss icon in the upper right corner of your blog as this is a very common place to find the subscribe section. Remember, most people on the net are like sheep, they look in the same place on every site for what they are used to and the upper right corner is the standard place for the rss icon this day in age.

Tip 4 – Keep on topic

When you start your blog I’m sure you will have a topic you are interested in mind. Make sure you stick to that topic as this is what your readers are interested in. Writing about what you are passionate about will also lead to great posts because you have really know what it is you are talking about.

Tip 5 – Use images in your posts.

People are visual beings and images speak to them. Your readers will find interest in what you write, but can grab hold of the topics of your posts better with visual aids. I’d suggest one or two images per post, but more might be in order depending on your topics.

Tip 6 – Link, link, link.

If you know you have written about a topic before, link to it in your present post as it’s something your readers will be interested in and will directly correlate to what you are writing about. This tactic keeps your readers interested in your blog and its good for the search engines too.

Tip 7 – Related posts go a long way.

This is the same concept as linking in your post, except these usually are found at the end of your article. There are several plugins that do this for you “Yet Another Related Posts Plugin” is a great one and the one I use on this blog. Scroll to the end of this post to see it in action.

Tip 8 – Contact us

Make sure you have a contact us page on your blog whether you use a contact form or just leave your contact information for your readers to find easily. This allows your readers to contact you privately with any matters they would like to discuss, like advertising or personal comments they have for you that they don’t want displayed publicly in your comments.

Tip 9 – Make popular posts easy to find

A popular post section is a must on any blog. Make it easy to find for your readers. I place mine in the footer, but most place this top post list in the sidebar. This lets your readership know what others find interesting on your blog and they just might find it interesting as well.

Tip 10 – Sitemap for the search engines

There are tons of plugins that will auto-create a site map for you. A site map is the navigational structure of your site and helps the search engines index each page you create. The plugin I use is the “Google XML Site map Generator“

I hope these tips help you in creating and running your blog. If you have more usability tips be sure you leave them in the comments.