With so much blogging advice, tools and tips out there it can be hard to keep up with it all. To simplify this and help you with your blogging education I have put together this list of simple and quick to implement tips in the categories of blogging, SEO, web development, branding and design, social media, email list building and productivity.
These blogging tips will help both beginner bloggers and seasoned bloggers saving you time and helping you grow your traffic, community and brand recognition.
Starting A Blog
Buying Your Domain
Ready to start your blog, picked your name but not sure where to buy the domain from? Rather than buying your domain through a hosting provider, I recommend using Namecheap.com to buy your domains and keep them all in one place!
Want a blog that looks like mine?
This blog was built on 17th Avenue Designs, Charlotte Theme. This is a clean and fast theme perfect for beginners!
Your Niche
Why should you niche down?
SEO has evolved and now more than ever your niche is key to your success as a blogger if you want to rank highly on Google. Google wants to see that you are expert and an authority on a certain topic, if you write about a wide variety of topics you are confusing Google about what you are an expert on so they are less likely to send traffic your way!
Blog Posts
Blog Post Readability
Want to quickly tell how readable your latest blog post is? Simply paste it into the awesome Hemingway App which will give you easy to follow tips and analysis to make your content more readable!
Hot Topics To Write About
Looking for hot topics to write your next blog post about? Use the free Google Trends page to see what is currently being searched the most in the world right now to write timely content that will do great with your blog’s readers!
What Are People Searching For?
Wondering what people are searching for that you can write about? Head to AnswerThePublic.com, enter your niche topic and discover what people are searching for giving you hundreds of topics to write about
Should you just write about anything you fancy on your blog?
Not if you want to start ranking and be seen as an expert on your topic! Every blog post should be intentional, have a goal, a specific reader and customer you want to attract. And it should form part of a content silo (several articles on related and complementary topics that all support one master article)
How long should your blog posts be?
The average blog post that appears on page 1 of Google is around 1,900 words so make sure you are writing comprehensive value packed articles! BUT, not Google is now also looking for articles that answer questions clearly and succinctly. If you can do that for your topic in less than 1,900 words go for it!
Looking for a catchy title to your latest blog post?
Use the free Portent Idea Generator where you can plug in your post’s main topic and get all sorts of creative titles and ideas for your article!
SEO
Titles and Meta Descriptions
Want to make sure Google can see your proper titles and meta descriptions for your posts? Use this Google SERP Simulator (short for Search Engine Results Page Simulator) to check if you have proper titles and meta descriptions on your posts! Just plug in your post URL and this page pulls back the title and description as seen by Google.
Backlinks To Your Blog
Links to your website are one most important parts of any SEO strategy, but did you know you can check your backlinks to your website for free? Simply use the free Ahrefs backlink checker tool to see what websites are linking to you, including the total number of backlinks, referring domains, and more!
Keyword Research
For new and beginners bloggers who want to start doing keyword research inexpensively then I recommend using Keysearch. This is a really easy to use tool that will allow you to discover keywords related to your topic that you have the best chance of ranking for, plus look at your competitors and other sites already ranking for these terms. You can try it out for free with a 1 month free trial, thereafter $17 per month.
Did you know that Google Autocomplete is a great source of keyword ideas? Even better, you can use the free KeywordSheeter website to automatically pull a list of related Autocomplete keywords, a great resource for planning your next blog post!
Ranking On Google
It’s generally accepted that it can take about six months to get meaningful traffic from a new post. But if you are plugging a content gap on Google then you may see your post appear high up in search much quicker than that!
Image Sizing
Have you been blogging for a while but didn’t realise until later that you should resize images for your blog? Image size is key to the fast speed of your site, instead of going back through hundreds of images to resize them instead install Shortpixel to optimise them for you!
Updating Old Blog Posts
Working on updating your old blog posts, but you are not sure which ones to start with? Head to Google Analytics and Search Console to get a list of your posts that are ranking the highest for specific keywords. Now work on improving these posts, updating the content and adding in other keywords.
Indexing Your Site
Do you sometimes make updates to a blog post only to find Google hasn’t changed how the post appears in search results? It was gone for a bit, but you can once again request that Google re-index a specific page so give it a shot next time you update an old blog post!
Web Development
Mobile Optimisation
Do you know how well your website performs on mobile? Use Google’s brand new Test My Site page to plug in your website to see how it is performing on mobile devices, along with recommendations to improve your score!
Website SSL
Is your website showing as “Not Secure” on some pages and you have no idea why? Use the free WhyNoPadlock.com website to check your URL and find out what is keeping the page from appearing as secure!
Page Builders
Have a blog theme already installed, but you want more flexibility in the design and the ability to customise the pages?
To create customised pages like my resources page, my landing pages and sales pages you can use a page builder plugin. I personally use Elementor which is an easy to use page builder that gives you complete freedom to design the layout of your pages. Other page builders include Beaver Builder and Oxygen.
These options all come with page builder templates that you can work from, or you can start your pages from scratch.
Name Availability
Have a great new idea for a name of a website or business but want to quickly check if it’s available across the social platforms? Use the free NameCheckr website to plug in a name and automatically search all the socials to make sure it’s available!
Feel like you should be using Twitter more but have no idea what to write? WordPress added a brand new feature that can automatically publish your entire blog post as a series of nicely formatted tweets!
Repurposing
Feeling overwhelmed by all the places that you need to show up on your blog and social media? Start repurposing! Take all your old blog posts and turn them into Instagram carousel posts, use the ideas to create reels, pull the key points to create a saveable caption. Key takeaway: use what you already have!
Email List
Growing Your List
Want to get new subscribers to your email list quickly? Give them a reason to sign up! No-one is coming to your website and giving you their precious email address unless they have an incentive to do so. Give them a free download, a preset, an eBook or check list to entice them to opt-in!
Resizing Your Opt-Ins
Many people use PDFs as incentives for their email list (which is great!) but sometimes those PDFs can be HUGE, causing all sorts of issues with them being downloaded and delivered to your subscribers… To help make sure your PDFs are nice and small (and email friendly), I always recommend compressing them by using a free tool like SmallPDF.com!
Branding & Design
Colour Palette
Looking to create a great looking colour palette for your branding without paying for an expensive designer? Use the free Design Seeds website to help you come up with beautiful looking colours that work well together!
Design Tools
Canva released a new recently and it has been on our wish list for a long time… Curved text! You can sign up for Canva for free here. Then to create curved text, you simply select the text you want to curve click on effects and then you can adjust how much you can curve the writing!
Want to take a screenshot of an entire web page but it’s too long? Use a free Chrome extension like GoFullPage to easily take scrolling screenshots of entire web pages, perfect for tutorial blog posts!
Fonts
Ever see a good looking font on a website you like, but have no idea what it is? Use the (hilariously named) What The Font website to upload a screenshot of the text and it will tell you what font it is! Genius.
Images
Looking for on brand images to present on your website and social media? If you are not experienced behind a camera, but you want on brand and beautiful images? Use a stock photo subscription website such as Haute Stock, Styled Stock Society or Her Creative Studio. Many of these also include other monthly bonuses such as Canva templates and pre-made social media graphics.
Online Courses
Ready to create an online course but you have no idea where to begin and what tools you should be using to create your course. I have tried and tested lots of tools when creating my online courses and digital products, here are my favourites.
Online Course Hosting Platforms
There are lots of options available to you including Teachable, Podia and Kajabi. Having used both Teachable and Podia, I recommend Podia. This platform is easy for you and your students to use and is much cheaper than Teachable and Kajabi plans.
Taking Payments
You can take payments via your course hosting platform but I personally prefer Thrivecart which offers better cart checkout pages, options for upsells and downsells and has a better affiliate experience
Working With Brands
Pitching Brands
Want to start pitching to brands, but not sure what documents you need or what to say in your email pitch?
What if you had everything you need to confidently pitch your dream brands today? Plan. Pitch. Partner. is my bundle of customizable templates, workbooks, tools and calculators to help you save time and charge more for brand partnerships!
The bundle includes 6 different media kit templates, a pricing calculator to determine what to charge, training on calculating your rates, customisable pricing documents, brand partnerships tracking spreadsheets, campaign results template and so much more!
All the templates are customisable in Canva so you can adjust them to your brands colours, fonts and add your own images.
Grab the bundle today for just $27 and at check out add on 27 email templates for pitching and negotiating brand deals
Video Editing
Looking for a simple and easy way to edit your videos on your phone for social media? Instead of spending weeks learning a complicated video editing software, download In Shot and start editing like a pro right there in your phone! The app allows you get creative changing the speed and transitions, plus adding music, stickers and text to your videos.
Wondering what software to use for recording and editing your online course videos? Camtasia is an industry leader in editing software and is especially great for online courses or filming training videos. It is easy to use and navigate and less complex than some editing tools you might use for advanced videography
Productivity
Focus
Do you sometimes get distracted while trying to work on your computer, losing time to Facebook or some other distraction? Install a free Chrome extension like Focus Mode or Forest to keep you locked into your task and away from your newsfeed!
Time Management
Wondering where all your time is being spent? Use TimeDoctor.com to start tracking your hours on projects, your blog, social media, and specific tasks. Then use this data to streamline your business and outsource!
I hope these tips have helped you find some new tools, methods and ways to elevate your blog to the next level! I would love to hear your tips in the comments.
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