Five Ways to Make your Blog More Engaging

August 17th 2015 | By Sarah McInerney

If your blog is not doing as well as expected, you’re not alone. The good news is there are some simple initiatives that could turn things around.

How is your blog doing? Are people engaging with your posts? Or are you spending lots of time for little reward?

If your blog is not doing as well as you expected, you’re not alone. Lots of bloggers invest great time and effort, only to find reader engagement is low or even non-existent.

The good news is there are some simple ways to turn this around. Here we take a look at five of the best.

Make it personal

Chat to your readers on a personal level. Even when you are writing how-to guides and advice pieces, you can still add a personal touch with your own recommendations and experiences so that your readers can get to know you and engage on a more individual level.

Try dropping in comments like, ‘we tried this’, and ‘this is something I particularly like because’, and ‘I thought I’d give this a run out to help you decide whether it’s a good buy’.

Mix it up

Rather than sticking to a single type of content, for example tips and guides, change it up. This will create more interest. Try to include at least one category of content that allows you to express personal opinion and ‘discuss’ topics with your readers so they feel involved and on your level. Invite comments and when you get them, respond to them personally to make your readers feel valued.

Invite comments on your blog posts and when you get them, respond to them personally to make your readers feel valued.

Link between posts

Readers will engage more when they can hop to other posts that are relevant to them. A great way to make this happen easily is to include a ‘Related Posts’ widget in your blog sidebar. You can also refer in your content to a previous related post and include a text link. A search bar is also a useful option to help readers find what they’re interested in.

Readers will engage more when they can hop to other posts that are relevant to them, so make sure you link between your content.

Add interest

It’s good to talk – or write – but bear in mind that great blocks of text, however interesting, will look daunting to a reader.

Engagement will earn a boost if you break your content up. Images and videos are the best way to do this. Adding captions to images that highlight key points in your text will encourage people to read more of your content. Not sure how to go about sourcing images? Check out our post, how to source images for your blogs and articles. Adding bullet points and subheadings also helps to break up blocks of text.

Great blocks of text, however interesting, will look daunting to a reader. Like a whole bunch of letters!

Be consistent

Agreed it can be a challenge finding the time to keep your blog topped up with fresh posts. It can also be a task trying to think of angles and subjects to keep readers engaged. However, if you want to keep your readers interested so they keep returning then you are going to have to stick to a schedule of content. By all means make it realistic, just don’t be sporadic. If you can only manage one post a month, then so be it. Just don’t post 6 months’ worth in one go. And if you know you are not going to be able to stick to a regular pattern, call in some help!

If you could use some help with boosting engagement on your blog or if you need help with your SEO, contact our agency in London today!