Ways to Improve Your Blog – Functionality
Functionality is a key component for both bloggers and their readers. Here are some excellent suggestions for improving the functionality of your blog.
This is Part 3 in an eight part series from the article 99 Ways to Improve Your Blog from the blog Traffic to Your Blog written by Steinar Arason. Please check out all of the posts in this series: Content, Design & Appearance, Functionality, Marketing, SEO, Networking, Subscribers and Making Money.
Install the Top Commentators Plugin
One way to reward readers that participate and encourage others to get involved is to install the Top Commentators Plugin (for WP). This will put a list in your sidebar with the names and links to those who have participated the most.
Change Up Your Sidebar
When was the last time you made some modifications to your sidebar? Chances are your regular readers have kind of gotten used to what’s there and they probably tune it out. From time-to-time it can be beneficial to change things up a bit and add some new features or content to the sidebar.
Separate Trackbacks from Comments
Most blogs display trackbacks and pingbacks along with comments from readers. This can help to show that others find your content valuable, and a lot of trackbacks and pingbacks can be impressive to readers. On the other hand, they can also get in the way and interfere with conversations throughout the comments. With WordPress there is a relatively simple way to separate them. Michael from Pro Blog Design has a nice tutorial for doing this.
Improve Your About Page
Some of your readers will go to your About page to find out more about you. When was the last time you updated your About page? Take a look at it and see how effectively it is communicating to readers.
Add a Sitemap
Users can benefit from having a sitemap available, but often XML sitemaps are the only ones that are considered by bloggers. WordPress users can use the Sitemap Generator Plugin from Dagon Design to create a page that links to all other blog posts and pages.
Get Rid of Unproductive Widgets
How many widgets and buttons do you have on your blog? How many of them actually produce any type of results, and how many of them are ignored by readers? If you have unnecessary widgets that aren’t doing any good, get rid of them and free up some space while you improve your page load speed.
Add a Forum
Some blogs have added to the community aspect of the blog by adding forums. If you have a tightly-focused community that will be interested in communicating with other readers, consider adding a forum. vBulletin is one of the most popular ways to quickly put a forum on your site.
Get a Domain Name
If your blog is hosted on Blogspot or anywhere other than a domain that you own, purchase one today. Having your own domain is essential for building and branding a successful blog. I purchase domain names at 1and1 domains
Get Better Hosting
How does your hosting plan stack up? Many blogs could benefit from a better hosting company. When your blog goes down you’ll realize that paying a little bit more for quality hosting is a good decision. This is especially important if you plan to market your blog with social media.
Install Threaded Comments Plugin
One of the best ways to improve the level of communication with readers is to install a threaded comments plugin. WordPress users have a few options, including the most popular, Brian’s Threaded Comments. If you are not familiar with threaded comments, they allow you (and other readers for that matter) to reply directly to a specific comment. Your reply will then be displayed right below the original comment instead of all the way down at the end of the comments. It makes it easier and more effective for you to answer questions and respond to comments. You can see it in action here at PureBlogging.
Add Subscribe to Comments Option
In my opinion there is no reason not to allow readers the option of subscribing to comments. Once they leave a response to one of your posts that should have the ability to get any additional comments emailed to them. This is another way to boost the effectiveness of your communication with readers. WordPress users can install the Subscribe to Comments Plugin .
Backup Regularly
If blog security isn’t a priority for you, it will quickly become one when you have a problem. There are a number of different ways to backup a blog. My personal choice is to use WordPress’s export feature which creates an XML file that you can save. Then if you ever need it, all you have to do is import it into WordPress and the problem is solved.
Delete Spam Comments
Spam comments can be distracting to readers that are really trying to get involved in the conversation, and they can give your blog a negative image. You can either choose to moderate comments before they appear or just go back and delete spam comments as they come in. Of course, plugins like Akismet make this much more manageable.
Have a Comment Policy
If comment spam is a problem on your blog, you may want to post an official comment policy that clearly states what is encouraged, what is permitted, and what will not be tolerated. Most likely this statement won’t completely stop spam, but it can help those that aren’t sure what is appropriate and what is not.
Give a Disclosure if You Do Paid Reviews
Many blogs write paid reviews as a way to generate some income. This is fine with most readers, but it is helpful for them to know where you stand on paid reviews. Some bloggers effectively use a disclosure to let readers know that they do publish paid reviews, but they can assure readers that there opinions will not be biased because someone is paying them.
Remove NoFollow Tags on Comment Links
One way that you can reward those who comment on your blog is by removing the nofollow tags from links in the comments. By doing this you can give your commentors a real, legitimate link in exchange for their participation.
Use NoFollow Tags on Comment Links
On the other hand, removing nofollow tags isn’t a good move for everyone. A number of bloggers, including myself on my primary blog, have gone back to nofollow tags. If you are getting a lot of useless comments that seem to be submitted only for a link, you may want to consider going back to nofollow.
Delete Unused Plugins
Many bloggers keep a ton of plugins in their folder even though many of them are not being used. Plugins can sometimes cause problems with your blog, so it is best to get rid of any that you are not using.
Stay Up to Date with New Versions of Your Blogging Platform
Most blogging platforms, like WordPress, will release new and updated versions. For security and functionality purposes it is good to stay current. Many of the releases of WordPress address security issues from older versions, so if you are not upgrading you could be facing increased risk.
Restrict Access by IP Address
You can thwart would-be hackers by only allowing access to your admin folder for specific IP addresses. If you are the only blogger and you always use the same computer this can be pretty easy. Otherwise, you simply need to include the IP address of any user and any computer that needs access. Daniel wrote a nice post at Daily Blog Tips that gives instructions .
Reduce Database Calls
Page load speed can be a major issue for some blogs. Have you ever looked through the code of your blog to see how many times it is accessing your database? In most cases there are some simple changes that you can make to reduce unnecessary calls to the database. For example, your blog may display the title of the blog in the header. This is probably checking your database to see what the title is. You can get rid of this by removing that code and replacing it with the actual title of your blog. The same thing is true with a lot of footer links. Whenever you can get the same result without accessing the database you will be speeding up your pages.
Add a Contact Form
Some of your visitors will want to get in touch with you, and it may not be appropriate for them to leave a comment that is publicly visible. Give them an easy way to reach you by having a page specifically for this purpose.
Create a Custom 404 Error Page
When a visitor reaches a dead link on your blog or mistypes a URL what do they find? Hopefully an error page that actually gives them some information and helps them to find what they may be looking for. Most WordPress themes already have a generic 404 file, all you have to do is add some personalized content and links to help visitors find the pages that they are most likely to be looking for.
Fight Scrapers with a Footer Link
Fighting scrapers can turn into a part-time job. One of the best ways to ease the pain is to include a link back to your blog at the footer of your feed. This way you may be notified with a pingback, plus you will be showing readers that the content belongs to you. WordPress users can install the RSS Footer Plugin .
Delete Unused Themes
Much like plugins, most bloggers have several unused themes sitting in their content folder. If you are not using a theme and you have no plans to do so, why not delete it?
Reduce the Number of Plugins that You Use
I know I have repeatedly recommended plugins for different purposes, but the truth of the matter is that not all of these plugins are right for everyone, and no blogger should be using every plugin that has some sort of beneficial purpose. Excessive use of plugins can slow down your pages and make your blog more vulnerable. Plus, each time you upgrade to a new version you will have the chore of de-activating and re-activating all of the plugins. Only use plugins that provide something that really helps your blog and try to keep that number as small as possible.
Clean Up Your CSS File
Over time a CSS file can easily become a mess. Most likely there is a good bit of code in the file that isn’t even being used if you have made some customizations or changes to the site. I wrote a post 23 Resources for Clean and Compressed CSS that should help you with the process.
Fix Broken Links
Dead links can be a real frustration for visitors and they can prevent your content from being seen. Broken links are sometimes unavoidable, but you can always fix them and solve the problem. Dead-Links.com is a great free tool that will crawl through your pages and look for dead links.
Use a Google Custom Search Instead of the Default Blog Search
Most blogs have a search function, and that is certainly helpful for readers. However, the default searches from blogging platforms are not the best. Some bloggers use a Google Custom Search to more effectively address the issue.Way
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