Businesses today need to establish an online presence to attract more people from all over the globe. Regardless of their size, it is must to maintain a good reputation not only offline but as well as on the internet. One of the most effective ways of reaching more people is by starting a business blog. This should be an important consideration in addition to the company’s social media accounts. There are many designs and features to choose from these days when creating a blog. Beyond them, however, a business entity must take into account a few vital features that will provide the best results.
Layout Design
A blog’s layout makes a huge difference in creating an appealing site. Basically, there are three types – the three-column, two-column and single column. The three-column layout normally features the main content column and two sidebars while the two-column features the main column and a single sidebar. A business that offers several products or services can choose the three-column layout to allow it to provide various information. While the different sections can distract visitors, they can also be beneficial in that readers have lots of information to check out while on the site. On the other hand, the two-column and one-column layout have less distractions as they allow readers and visitors to focus more on reading the blog’s content.
Create a Mobile Version
Business owners should also make it a point to create a mobile version of their blog. They don’t even have to spend so much for this because there are online tools that will help you build a mobile blog at no cost. By doing this step, you can be sure to attract more people particularly those that prefer to browse the internet using their mobile devices.
Add Opt-in Forms
Opt-in forms are another way to prompt visitors to follow or subscribe to your blog and get updates. It’s also an effective way to build your list. A blog featuring a writers job board, for example, can entice people wanting to find freelance writing jobs to subscribe to the site. This way, they are updated regularly of new writing jobs that become available. Adding several opt-in forms is strongly recommended particularly for businesses that offer a number of products or services. To get the attention of your visitors, place your opt-in form on the top right of your home page and include a call for action.
Add SEO Plugin
If you’re using the WordPress platform, an SEO plugin can be added to ensure that your blog is easily searched and is shown in the top search results. The WordPress SEO plugin is free to use and allows publishers to include a title, meta description and keywords for a blog’s homepage and other blog posts.
Include Social Media Buttons
The social media buttons should not be taken for granted as well. They perform an important function which is to make it easier for readers to share your blog posts on their favorite social networking sites. For this part, you have two options You can choose to add the official sharing buttons that includes Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest among others or use a plugin that allows you to create share buttons for more than 80 social networking sites.