The 10 elements of every successful blog

1. Attention Grabbing First Paragraph

Your first paragraph should be a summary of what the reader will expect from the blog and include a strong hook to get them intrigued. This paragraph needs to draw readers to keep reading and help make your blog post stand out

2. Recent Posts Widget

Recent post widgets assist visitors in sorting through all of the posts you're presenting in order to find out what's current and new from your page. These are often found on the blogs page or on individual blog pages. The recent posts widget is much more crucial as on the individual blog posts as most people won't have the chance to be directed to your blog's main page alone. They'll approach it through the internal pages with the presence of a recent post widget to lead them. No matter which page readers land on first, they'll be presented with an interesting new blog to be redirected to.

3. Social Sharing

Social sharing buttons often consist of Facebook and Twitter. Depending on the blog type and their target audience other forms of social shearing can be included such as Pinterest and LinkedIn. Social sharing invites the reader to share your blog or post a snippet of it which in turn can provide you with an increase reach and invites new readers to you page.

4. Comments 

A key interactive feature of blogs is the comment section. Comments are beneficial for a variety of reasons. They enrich your site with content, which aids your SEO efforts. They're also a great method to build a community and get people talking. They also provide you with information on what your readers think and their reactions to your writing.

5. Useful Subheadings

Subheads have three main functions, they make the page more visually appealing by breaking up the information, they make it easier for your reader to navigate to relevant sections of your blog and they can even help improve your search engine optimisation (SEO).

Many potential readers will be turned off by a long page of continuous words and require subheadings to direct them through the blog. The addition of subheadings also provides readers ease if they want to go back and review a point after reading the post. Subheadings make reading your post easy, allow readers to skim the blog while still understanding the main points, and make the post more visually appealing by breaking up the main sections.

6. Header Image

Header graphics can help your blog's home page look a lot more appealing as readers scroll through your blog page. Including a relevant and visually appealing header image is also important when users share your blog. Once they share the blog to social media platforms, the image you have selected becomes the default featured image in their share. Header photos should be displayed in each individual blog post.

7. Email Opt-In 

Your email list is a critical component of turning your blog into a profitable business as the vast majority of your site's visitors may not re-visit your site. Obtaining even a few of those visitors' email addresses can make the difference between a positive and negative return on investment. You can put this on the top of the page, you can attract users with a pop-up, or you can collect their emails by making it a prerequisite to submit a comment.

8. Mobile-Friendly Design

Mobile devices are used by more individuals than desktop computers to access the internet. Despite this, many websites are still not mobile-friendly. By ensuring your blog post is easily accessible and readable through different devices, readers are able to comfortably read through your post without frustration and leaving your page.

9. Call-to-Action 

Almost every blog post should have a call-to-action, which can take a variety of shapes and be implemented in a variety of ways. Decide what action you want your visitors to do as the first step, it could be to make a comment, to read another blog on your website, or to learn more about a product or service you provide. By including a call-to-action, you turn your blog from just a publishing effort to an actual lead and business generator.

10. Relevant Internal Links

Internal links have traditionally been seen to be beneficial to SEO. They are able to boost SEO as they enhance the number of pages per visit and the amount of time people spend on your site. It’s important that visitors are able to recognise the link as relevant to their visit, click on it, and spend time on the ensuing page.

If you’re struggling to get people to read your blogs, read about six of the most common reasons why and what you can do to fix them.