Eight fundamental ways to improve your Blog

Summary:This article covers eight important features and considerations to improve usability and the reader confidence for your blog.

This post is largely based on Jacob Nielsens ideas about writing and presenting content on Internet. The focus is on usability, and building a relationship of trust between the user and the author. If you fulfil these two conditions you have a winner. It is not that simple to get there of course but here are a few guidelines and things you can implement that will improve one or the other of usability and building trust.

1. Make an author biography. Present yourself and let the reader decide whether he/she should bother listening to your rants. If you think you are qualified, present why. If you are not that qualified, be upfront about it and people can judge for themselves whether they should listen or not. Honesty goes a long way.
2. Put your picture up. Being able to put a face on the otherwise anonymous Internet gives an edge. It is also easier to trust to an author that you have a visual relation to.
3. Use descriptive post titles. Your titles are often the only information bearer in listings and links, and generic titles like “Check this out!” and “My god, look at this” are not going to get you many new readers. Your title is your ultra-compact post summary. The three first words are the most important.
4. Use intelligible links. Users must be able to tell where a link will take them, either from the anchor text or the link title. Never open links in new windows. This is extremely annoying to the user and also eliminate the use of the so important back navigation button.
5. Identify some of your pillar posts and link to them from your main navigation system. These are the posts that defines your site. The best you have done. These will entice the reader to keep reading and hopefully, subscribe to your blog.
6. Publish regulary. It is better to publish/update once a week, but regularly, than to publish ten posts one week and then take a three week break. Use your blogs schedule function (if it has one) to follow your schedule. There is probably no single ideal posting frequency, so go for what suits you.
7. Host your own blog. This is very important, and I figure will be even more important in the future, as Internet real estate increase in importance and value. By using a hosted service you build someone else’s brand instead of your own.
8. Use a familiar layout and navigation system. Unless you already have a name and loyal readers I’d recommend that you avoid ‘cutting edge’ menu systems and advanced design. Users don’t want to learn a new navigation system for each site they visit. They want something were they instantly can identify the key functions and quickly find your key content.

I’d put a 9th item to that list, but as I’ve already covered the importance of writing specifically for an online audience previously I’ll stop here for now. I’m sure the list can be made much longer, so I will have all the reason to get back to this topic again.

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