Boost Your Blog // Five More Blogging Tips

So I may or may not be writing this because I may or may not have just found a blog that I couldn't navigate.  It was a cute site with lovely bunting, seemed to be love affair worthy, & even had some cute content...however I couldn't navigate it!

This got me to thinking about the things I find most annoying (edited to add: that word sounds bad, let's say frustrating) when visiting blogs.  If you are a smaller/newer blog that is just getting started, I wanted to point out a few things that may help readers navigate your site that you may not be aware of:

one // have a link designated as home

either have a specific home navigation tab or enable your blog header to link to your home page.  It is so confusing when I arrive on a blog & can't for the life of me find how to get to your first page.  This can happen multiple ways: arriving on your blog from say places like hellocotton, pinterest, or even a link with in another blog.  Once I head to your blog & fall in love with that one post, I want to see more.  But if I can't find your home button easily, I start to cry a little bit.

two // internal links that open in a new tab

It's great that you want to keep your readers on your page but opening internal links (in this case links leading to another post or page on your blog) don't need to open in a new tab.  Open external links in new tabs, like sponsor's buttons are better for this.

three // centered text

Don't get me wrong, centered text can be good.  But most times it's not.  If you have a lot to say, centered text isn't that bad.  You'll have a full paragraph of text that comes out looking a bit justified.  If you want to mention your outfit details, or picture sources, or want to give something some emphasis, centered text is fine.  But it's when you have a paragraph of two sentences that the text gets hard to read.  Believe me, I've had centered text before.  If you go back far enough, you'll find it.

four // ads everywhere

It's alright to make money from your blog.  In fact, I'd say I encourage it.  But, do it cautiously.  You aren't going to make money from every Schmoe that wants you to put an ad on your blog.  Make sure your ads fall into your niche.  Be a respectable blogger & only share things you are passionate about.  Make it as if your advertisers aren't the main part of your blog.  You want to still be you, after all that's why people come in the first place!  Go on ahead & take the plunge...but don't distract your readers from quality content & your plain old awesomeness.

five // use those tags

Tags help organize your site better but it can be confusing if you have too many.  I am guilty of the too many tags club.  But tagging lets you link to a group of posts to create sections for your blog.  If you label every outfit post with the tag outfit you can later search that term or click that tag & find all your outfit posts in one place!  It's a great tool that surprisingly I've seen unused.  It makes your blog easily searchable too.  Pick tags that people will search for that apply to your post.  Easy as pie.

So I hope I haven't upset you by pointing these out.  I promise I just want some freaking awesome bloggers to be found out there & I want to navigate your freaking awesome blogs!

Have you tried anything different on your blog? Seen any results?