Essential Features a Blog Should Have

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Blogging has now become a rather commonplace feature on the web.

At almost every nook and cranny of the Internet, you can find a write up about almost any topic you can think of.  In this modern age of digital evolution where everyone seems to be going paperless, blogging has become one of the conduits for a successful content marketing.  A smart digital marketing agency would massively exploit this and use this modern avenue of writing for launching various products or services. 

However, launching a successful blog is not as straightforward as bloggers would want it to be. There are some blog posts that inexplicably get neglected and unread while there are some of the more effective ones that get more views by the day. You might ask what the secret is, a simple, direct answer would be: Fresh, great and riveting content. Without this imperative factor, all of the effort you have put into crafting your blog post will be all for naught. Assuming you already have the appropriate, interesting content, you find yourself inadequate in terms of readership. Well, the reality is, no matter how amazing your content is if you have not covered all the necessities and essential features a blog should have, your readership would largely be insufficient.

So what are these lesser known features that your blog should have? Read on and let this article walk you through the often overlooked facets a successful blog should have.

LINKS TO SOCIAL PROFILES

People online have stalked someone over social media at some point. Though not necessarily a priority for every blog, your readers would thank you if you gave them links to your public profiles on either of the many social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Etc. The simple reason is that your readers would want to know the person behind the articles and perhaps, they would want to discover and unearth for themselves the other articles you may have written which you might consistently feature on these social media websites. 

A NOTICEABLE SUBSCRIBE BUTTON

And while on the subject of readers wanting to read more of your content, it would only make sense if they desired to be notified should you update your blog or post something new. Assumingly, you would want the same thing as you invested the time to create a blog and write posts that you would want read. If this were to be the case, then your readers need to know that you have released new content, and the easiest way to achieve this is to have them—no, rather encourage them to subscribe to your blog employing a noticeable subscribe button. Make it stand out and conspicuous enough that your readers would not hesitate to click on it. 

Do not hide it underneath a block of text—make it easier for your readers to find you again should they want to read more from you.

Additionally, you should give your readers the option to subscribe via email.

CATEGORY PAGES

Your readers, potential subscribers and visitors would not want to scour your entire blog page just to find that single blog post their friend told them about or had recommended to them by word of mouth. Moreover, a majority of your readers are interested in several topics you may have written about but do not necessarily want to go over each and every blog post you have written. Organize your blog posts into categories and help your readers find the post they want to read best. Do not simply lump them together and give them a rather taxing time trying to find that one post—you will lose readership this way.

SOCIAL SHARING ICONS IN BLOG POSTS

The more your blog gets read, the better. And what better way would there be than to have it shared multiple times on social media? Sure, this is something you can easily do yourself by sharing it multiple times on Facebook and flooding Twitter. But let us face it, that would be shameless self-promotion, and your friends and followers would waste no time hiding your future posts. Give this avenue of sharing to your readers instead and feature a button that allows them to share your blog posts on popular social media websites.

A FEATURE BOX

Designate a place or a box where you feature your most read posts, your most popular post or perhaps, your most recent post. Feature a blog post in there to direct your new readers somewhere. In that way, they will get the natural feel of your blog and would know what to look for the next time they visit.

Blogging is a hit or miss, and as previously stated, the most imperative characteristic a blog post should have is great content. For a failsafe way to succeed in blogging and gain more readership, compound your riveting posts with these features and let your readership grow.