5 Simple Things You Can Do Today to Make Your Blog Better

No matter what blogging platform you're using or how much (or how little) time you have to spend customizing your blog or building your brand, there are some super simple ways you can make your blog even better. The tips listed here can be followed on any platform, will cost you nothing and can all be done in just one day. So what are you waiting for?

Depending on where your blog is hosted and what theme you're using, you should be able to customize your header. This is the first thing people see when they land on your blog, so it makes sense to use a lovely picture that really captures your brand (even if your blog is a personal journal, you still have a brand).

Try using a photograph you've taken or a graphic you've designed, if you have those skills. If you're a photographer or visual artist, it should go without saying that your header image should reflect your work!

A tagline is a short sentence, often located near the title or in the header of your blog, that explains what it's all about. It can make the difference between a new visitor skipping off to another blog five seconds later or staying on your blog to read more.

My tagline is "Photography, tutorials, resources, reviews and ramblings from Tanya at RockstarVanity Photographic Art." It very clearly states exactly what visitors will find on my blog and the keywords used correspond with my categories.

If someone arrived at your blog and saw nothing but your tagline, how much would they know about the kind of content you post?

If you're struggling to fit what you do into a neat tagline, start with a list, then decide what's important enough to keep and what you can do without. Once you're left with keywords, start forming them into a sentence.

If you're still stuck, why not ask a friend to help? Often having input from someone who isn't directly involved can keep your perspective fresh.

When you start a new blog, your host or theme may populate your sidebar and other widget areas with generic basics. Sometimes these will totally fit with what you want on your blog, but you'll probably still want to do some fiddling around, removing widgets you don't need, adding new ones or customizing what's already there.

Available widgets will depend very much on the platform you're using (like Blogger or WordPress) or even on the theme you've chosen. Spend some time thinking about what order you want widgets to appear in, move things around, see how they look and how consider how they'll work for your visitors.

Don't be afraid to remove widgets if they don't fit with the image you're trying to project. If your blog isn't too discussion-heavy, for example, you might find a Recent Comments widget to be pointless.

You could better use your widget space for things that help promote your online presence, such as a Facebook page widget or links to your online profiles to encourage people to connect with you elsewhere.

No matter how awesome a blog is, people will feel more inclined to engage with your content if they can also engage with you, too. The easiest way to introduce yourself is to have an up-to-date About Me (or About This Blog) page where you can tell your readers about yourself.

You can use this as an opportunity to talk a bit about you as a person, your motivation to create, your mission statement and the purpose of your blog.

If you're having difficulty coming up with a structure or content for your About Me page, why not have a look at what other bloggers have written? Mine is here if you'd like to take a look. Remember that there are as many ways to introduce a blogger as there are bloggers introducing themselves!

It's understandable that you'll want to avoid having to deal with a heap of annoying spam comments every day, but if you make it too complicated to comment on your blog, people won't bother. The more restrictive your set-up, the less likely people are to spend the time and effort needed to leave a comment.

I find captchas to be deeply irritating, especially when they're those awkward ones that require you to be able to read fuzzy numbers in an image or the "select all the pictures that show food" kind. (Yes, this is a thing, and it is horrible!).

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