This post – 10 Things to Improve Your Blog – contains affiliate links.
The summer, albeit busy with vacations and kids, is truly the perfect time to work on your blog. Use this downtime wisely. You won’t be distracted by too many business requests (many people are on vacation too), and you can really take time to think without the hurry-up-and-get-er-done kinda distractions.
As you know, once Q3 and Q4 roll around, it’s show-time for your blog. Most bloggers report Q4 as their busiest quarter, so you don’t want to be scrambling to get your blog in order. Rather, you want your blog ready to soak in all the amazing traffic the second half of the year has to offer.
10 Things to Improve Your Blog this Summer
Here is a checklist of 10 things to improve your blog this summer to get ready for your busiest traffic season. I hope you’re ready for your blog to soar!
(1) Create and Schedule Q4 Content: Write your best holiday posts – new recipes and crafts, top 10 lists, and best holiday fashion and decor. Get your posts ready now so you’re not scrambling when life gets busy.
If you’re really motivated, you can schedule your content to post on social media ahead of time. I use Planoly to schedule my Instagram posts ahead of time, for example.
(2) Refresh content you already have. Work through all your old posts and give each of them an update (if you don’t like the post anymore, see #7). Remember, you are a better writer now that you’ve been at this for a while. Revise your content to reflect your mad blogging skills.
(3) Add internal links. After I write an article, I often search old articles to see where I can go back and add links to my new article. Help people get lost in your site by keeping them engaged with more and more of your content by linking articles to one another.
(4) Organize your Category pages. When I first started blogging, I added way too many categories and now I’m paying the price by spending hours and hours re-organizing things.
Spend the summer months organizing your content into no more than 10 categories. Your category pages can really shine if you put effort into it. I use the free Content Views plugin to make my category pages look like this.
(5) Give your old posts a visual makeover. If you have used free stock images in the past, change them with fresh stock images. I use DepositPhotos for stock images and find they have great photos at a great price (at least a great price when it comes to stock images).
Articles do better with purchased stock images vs. free images, especially if you’re using those same images to create pins for Pinterest.
(6) Create new and perfectly-sized Pin images. Currently, the best size for Pin images is 600×900. If you have other sized images, change ’em. Pinterest can be an excellent way to grow your pageviews, and visually appealing pin images work best on attracting the right kind of traffic from Pinterest.
(7) Delete content that is crappy, off-topic or that no one looks at anymore. If the post can’t be fixed, get rid of it. Delete, delete, delete. Think of it this way, if your blog has 100 articles and only 20 are ever clicked on, Google will think only 20% of your content is worthwhile. However, if you have 30 articles and 20 are regularly clicked on, Google will think your site is a homerun!
(8) Take a course. There are some great courses on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and SEO – all ways to improve your marketing skills as well as improve your blog. Use this time to master or improve a new skill. You can watch tutorials while at the pool or lounging on your patio. This is a no brainer if you ask me!
(9) Find your tribe. If you’re not part of a local blogger club, join one. There is NO substitute for in-person networking. Sign up to attend a blogging conference in the coming year too.
May I suggest the Fuel Your Influence Conference in Denver? Conferences offer so many opportunities to connect with other bloggers, brands and experts – and they are really inspiring too. There is nothing like seeing bloggers killing it to light a fire in your belly too. If you’re not regularly attending a couple of conference each year, you’re missing out!
(10) Invest to improve your blog. If your site looks like a child built it, invest in professional web development. If you want people to treat you professionally and sponsor your blog (eventually), invest in yourself and professionalize your blog. No excuses. Treat your online home like your own home – organized, clean and professional!
Are You Ready?
Take time this summer to improve your blog’s content, visual appeal and your blogging and marketing skills. Your effort during the summer months will pay on ten-fold in the future – especially when it’s time to benefit in during Q3 and Q4. I know it has paid off for me.
As soon as I started treating my blog professionally, and as soon as I started to invest real money into it, it began to pay me back in droves.
It makes sense. You get what you give.
When you put a lot of time and resources into your blog, it will finally become that passive income stream you always wanted it to be.
Goodbye day job. Hello professional blogger!