Your Blogging MOT

Assess Blog Performance

Every 6 weeks or so I take a day or two to have a close look at my Google Analytics Stats and Sitespeed. 

I realise I should probably be analysing my stats a lot more often than that and making a more concerted effort to understand the results better. 

Carving out time for this is a challenge so this is definitely something I would consider outsourcing. I don’t need help just with analysing but also would be awesome to find a company who could fix the problems they find.  

If I had oodles of spare time in my heart of hearts I know my sites could do with a full revamp, from Theme to images…. Well,  all the criteria in the contributed post below.  

Your Blogging MOT

If you were, or still are, an employee, you’ll have regular appraisals to set goals and assess your work performance. If you own your own business, you’ll sit down and look at your business plans and financial forecasts to make sure you are still on track and performing well. Do you do the same for your blog? Whether you are a hobby blogger, or you make money from it and treat it like a business, it’s a good idea to give your blog a regular MOT.

Sit down and take a good look at it. Assess how it’s doing, look at any targets you’ve set yourself and look at any changes you need to make to get there. Here are some things to look at.

Design

Your blog’s design will be the first thing that your viewers notice, so it’s also the first thing that you need to take a look at. Your design should be clean and easy to read, while still standing out from the crowd. You should also make sure you are using your branding across all social media platforms and on your business cards and emails.

SEO

SEO is something that many of us learn over time. Few people go into blogging with an in-depth knowledge of SEO, and even if you did, there is a good chance that it’s changed a lot in the time your blog has been around. So, while your newer posts might have amazing SEO, the older ones might not. Take a look at some and see. If they need a little refreshing, take the time to do it, it could well be worth it.

Images

Our photography is another thing that often improves over time. But, it’s something that’s easy to change. Take a look at your posts, both old and new. Be honest, do your photographs stand out? Are their enough? Do they work well within the text? And are they high quality? If not, take some new ones or find a stock photo site.

Links

Do you regularly check that all of your links work? Most of us don’t. During your blogging MOT, check that none of your links are broken and that your social media and sharing links all work well. It’s also a good idea to go through some of your more popular posts and add related links, and some affiliate links to increase your income.

Marketing

It’s no good having the most amazing blog in the world if no one can find it. Spending some time on your SEO will help a lot, but you should also take some time to look at your digital marketing strategies. Are you using social media as much as you can, and in the right way? Do you know where your ideal readers are? And are you speaking to them online whenever you can? If marketing isn’t your passion, get in touch with a digital marketing agency who can help.

The blogging world changes all of the time. So, try to perform a blogging MOT at least once a year. If it’s easier buddy up with another blogger to critique each other’s sites before setting goals and starting to make changes.

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Awesome advice! I will do my best to follow it to the letter. Just as soon as I catch my breath. 

How are you doing? Are you super organised and doing regular performance assessments on your blog?