10 Essential Things Your Blog Should Have

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Do you also forget about small details? It is human nature that we often forget small details in midst of bigger ones. But these small things really matter an often, these matter a lot. In this post, I have discussed about 10 simple things that your blog should have:

1. Contact Form: Contact form is a must have for any blog. Without it, you will surely miss out some good feedback from your readers. Most of the platforms either have plugins or in built contact functionality. You can also use external service like Kontactr if your platform does not support it
2. About Page: You should have a word or two about you on a separate page. This gives the readers the opportunity to know you much better. And for God’s sake, don’t make your “About” page full with affiliate links! Remember, it’s about you, not money
3. Landing Page(s): For new visitors, you should have a landing page that lists your elevator pitch and some of the best posts of your blog. You can also throw in a RSS/newsletter subscription reminder
4. Archives: Archives let readers find your old posts. Preferably, archives should have options to let readers navigate category wise or date wise. You can also use Smart Archives Reloaded plugin for WordPress to generate a list of all posts.
5. Proper Navigation: Proper navigation structure is a must have for any blog. And navigation does not mean just the top menu. Footer links like Next/Previous post are also helpful. Similarly, you can also include a list of posts/pages in sidebar
6. Search: I simply find it irritating that many blogs often forget adding a search widget. If you are on a platform that supports javascript, try Google’s AdSense for search. It returns better results that the default searches and also lets you monetize your blog
7. A Writer(Name): Another thing that leaves me annoyed is the writer being mentioned as “admin” or a similar name. It takes less than a minute to change your name/nickname to something better and it adds a lot of personal touch
8. Comment Subscriptions: OK, so you have a comment form but do not have a “Subscribe to comments” option. Then you are making a big mistake. This simple option can increase the conversations a lot
9. Readable Fonts: Not everyone will get a magnifying glass just to read your blog. Content is the core of a blog and if it’s unreadable, you are bound to be doomed. Any font size less than 12 px can really kill your blog
10. Proper(Easy To Remember) Link Structure: Bad link structures are not good for both readers as well as SEO. A link like http://myblog.com/?p=10 is hard to remember. Now, compare this with http://myblog.com/my-post-title It’s easy to remember and also keyword rich.

These were 10 essential things your blog should have. Did I forget something? Remember to add your suggestions in comments.