Introduction
Are you planning to improve your blog/website but not having as much time as you may need to make improvements in your blog and its looks? In this post, I am just sharing some quick ways, which you may better call ‘suggestions’ to improve a blog without spending a whole day/week or two in the same.
So, below are some steps that may help to improve your blog in a few minutes.
- Tweaking your template/theme/look
When we say ‘tweak’, it means twisting your blog’s theme a bit, but sharply. Forget who you are, and think from a reader’s mind. In what look you will get more attracted to a blog? It is when your blog uses an eye pleasing typography, making your writings more understandable and easier to read.
Look at the background of your site and think again. Is it a plain colored background or an image? If your blog’s main content is ‘text’, then it is recommended to use white colored background. If it is a photo/video blog, then make sure that you are not using unpleasant colors in your background, like dark red or blue. The vision of the visitors should not be misdirected by unusual backgrounds.
Look at the width and space dedicated to your main content, archives, advertisements etc. Are you giving other columns more space than the blog posts? If so, it is the time to adjust widths accordingly.
Look again, at your social sharing buttons. Aren’t they so improper or old fashioned? Are your social buttons, including RSS buttons matching with your site’s background and typography? Take a moment, add new buttons and even change its placement, if necessary.
- Run a website speed test
How much time does your blog/website take in loading completely? Is it happening very often, that it keeps on loading on and on for minutes? What should be the cause of its slowness? It may be due to using too many third party gadgets that keeps on sending/receiving data to its maker’s site. If you are not sure about it, find out run a site speed test immediately. Once you know, remove every element that is responsible.
Even if the cause is high memory consuming files, then shift all of them from you site to a file hosting site. Some trusted hosting sites are Google’s Cloud, Norton Cloud, Amazon Cloud front etc. You may also use some easy loading sites like Uploadbaz.com etc. Optimize images by using proper alt text.
Why is it needed to be done? There may be some ‘good’ visitors who are not stopping by your blog/site because it takes too long to load.
- Add/Show popular posts list at the home page
Most of the readers are not likely to subscribe to your blog/website as they are there to read out a specific news or information. But, if you are showing a list of popular/most visited posts of your blog at your homepage or a side of your blog, it may sure get you more visits and may even impress your visitors making them to like/subscribe your blog.
After all, this is why we leave social sharing and like buttons on our sites.
- Use plug-ins wisely
Suppose your blog is related to business and commerce, and it is likely that you may want to add a third-party plug-in/add-on to show the current condition of share market and its graph. Similarly, a score board for a sports related blog, a science news box to show latest science and space news and so on. Wait! Are you using too many plug-INS unnecessarily that do similar task? Are you using plug-ins from a trusted source? Does your blog/website really need these plug-INS? If not, remove all the unnecessary plug-INS right now.
- Use a ‘slash’ at the end of permalinks/URLs
Though it never troubles using or not using a slash at the end of URLs, but many SEO experts recommend adding a slash after URLs/permalinks. It lets the search engines know that it is not something else but a page, thus being ranked a bit better in search results.
- Be a thinker
What change can make by blog look better? Should I place ‘About me’ box below the post or at the footer of site? What else can be done to improve my posting? It is the most interesting part of improving your blog’s inner and outer look. Thinking is something that you can do while sitting, standing, walking, running, eating and even while sleeping. Give it a way to the thought of improving your blog.
As you know, earning knowledge is good, but earning experience is what we may call another side of wisdom. So, keep thinking more and more to improve your blog. It will also help you to keep going with the current trend of styling a blog.
Final words
We know that how much dedication and time it takes to come up with a good article every day/week or month. It may take a moment or two in thinking a topic, but to research and expand it briefer than brief is the biggest challenge to a blogger. And in all that, we hardly get time to design and improve our blog/website’s look. If we say about search engines, that are a big and most effective source of visitors, even these do not rank a blog/website according to its look or interface, but by the quality of content a blog has. But, if you are designing your blog timely, you will remain aware of what is actually eating your blog’s speed and looks. So, I suggest everyone to keep brainstorming and searching new and innovative ideas for your blog’s improvement. And give equal time to your content and its quality also.
(Please feel free to add queries, suggestions and ideas that may help us in improving a blog/website in comments)
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