Here are several easy-to-implement changes you can make on your blog to improve it dramatically. If you are doing any of these things, it would be best for you to stop, right away. Your users will undoubtedly, be happy that you did!
Don’t make your visitors work to add a blog comment.When they have just completed a post on your blog that they find engaging and informative and they want to add their comments to it, they will fill in their email address, name, comment, and then they are confronted with a Captcha. Don’t do this!
A captcha will not necessarily be a show stopper, but it can be annoying, and it really isn’t needed. A captcha will serve as an impediment to user engagement.
If you are concerned about spam or bots, you may want to think about using an anti-spam plugin. If you have the time, you may want to consider manually approving each comment.
This can be rather tedious, but it is the most effective way of preventing spammy comments.
Imagine, that you have just completed a presentation to an important client in a conference room packed with more than one hundred people.
Then, someone in your audience comes up to you and compliments you on your presentation. They tell you, “That was a great presentation. It was a very impressive marketing strategy you presented to us.”
Then someone else approaches you and says, “I agree with your strategy, but I would like you to consider some additions to it”. Then, you say nothing to them and just walk away.
This is the same as ignoring user comments on your blog. Don’t do this!
If one of your visitors makes an investment of their time and effort in order to post a comment on your blog, take the time to acknowledge them. Certainly, it does take some time and resources to do this, but you will offend your users if you don’t, it is a common courtesy.
In a best case scenario, it provides you with an opportunity to engage with your audience and develop a deeper relationship with them. It may even prompt someone to become your advocate, or even to become a customer.
Anything that is tough to find on your blog, site, fan pages, or additional marketing materials is bad practice.
If you want your visitors to take an action like share, like, click, read, etc. you need to make it straightforward and obvious.
If a visitor reads some of your content, finds it valuable, and wants to share it, don’t make it difficult for them to share.
Rather, place social sharing buttons in an obvious position on the bottom, top or side of your posts, where they are easily accessible to your visitors. There are numerous plugins available that make this quite easy to implement and the majority of them are customisable.
Unless you have been oblivious to recent trends, you are fully aware that mobile web accesses are increasing dramatically.
An increasing number of users are consuming web content and reading emails from mobile devices.
Don’t make your users struggle to consume your content on their mobile device. If your content is difficult to view, they are likely to simply abandon your site.
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