Blogging Tools – Page 4 – Hugh's Views & News

How To Spot And Remove Spammers And Spambots From Your WordPress Blog

Published on Aug 14, 2023Aug 15, 2023 by Hugh W. Roberts54 Comments

Is your blog plagued by spam, spammers and spambots? Do they annoy you? Do you know they’re even there and the damage they could be doing?

Allowing spammers and spambots to follow your blog makes it easier for them to attempt to flood your blog with spam comments. In turn, this opens the floodgates to your readers becoming the victims of scams or having their computer, tablet or phone infected with malware.

Light blue image with the words 'How To Spot And Remove Spammers And Spambots From Your WordPress Blog' in white text. — Is your blog infected with spammers and spambots?

There are many different types of spammers in the blog world. From those who leave uninvited links, those who flood your posts with pleas to check out their blog and follow them, and comments from spambots; they can all be a nuisance.

Some spammers are easy to spot. The clues are in their name.

Image highlighting the name of a spammer — The name of some spammers gives them a way straight away.

Some spammers try a little harder to trick you.

Image highlighting the web address of a comment from a spammer — Always check the web address of where a comment has come from.

The above comment may sound genuine, but just look at the web address where it’s come from.

Recently, many blogs on WordPress have been flooded with spam comments from dog breeders. My blogging friend Renard at Renard’s World wrote about them.

I’ve witnessed some bloggers approve and respond to the comments from these spambots. The comments look genuine, but they’re not. Here’s an example of a spam comment from one of the dog breeders.

Image showing a spam comment from a dog breeders spambot on a WordPress blog — Comment from a dog breeders spambot

Approving and allowing comments from spammers and spambots onto your blog posts will damage the ranking of your blog. It may also end up resulting in genuine readers clicking on links in comments or visiting the sites of these scammers resulting in them becoming victims of scams or having their computer infected with malware.

These spammers often leave messages on posts that look authentic and nice, but they never mention anything about the contents of the posts (other than saying they like them) and often trick bloggers into believing they are genuine.

Spammers who follow your blog will also click the ‘like’ button on all your posts in the hope that other readers will see their gravatar icon, and visit their site. Once there, the reader puts themselves in danger of being scammed or having their device infected.

How Do You Spot Comments From Scammers and Spambot?

WordPress has recently improved the subscribers’ page of a blog. Not only has this helped spotting spammers and spambots, but it’s easy to remove them as subscribers to your blog.

Here’s a screenshot of a comment from a spambot. I’ve highlighted the spammers name for instructions on how to unsubscribe them from following your blog further down in this post.

Image of a comment from a spambot on WordPress — Make sure you remove spammers from following your blog.

The Akismet Anti-Spam software that WordPress provides is excellent at dealing with spam, but it doesn’t catch it all.

Comments from spammers rarely have an image in their Gravatar, but spammers are now getting clever and inserting an image in their profile (like the one in the previous image).

Here’s how to spot, check and remove spammers and spambots as subscribers to your blog.

Make sure you are viewing your blog’s dashboard in ‘Default‘ view.

Copy the name of the spammers blog.

On your blog’s dashboard, go to ‘Users‘ – ‘Subscribers.’

Image highlighting "users' - 'Subscribers' on the dashboard of a WordPress blog. — Click Users – Subscribers

On the ‘Subscribers‘ page you’re taken to, paste the spammers blog’s name in the ‘search box.’

If the spammer is following your blog, their name will show in the results.

Click the three dots next to the blog you want to remove.

Click the ‘Remove‘ button to unsubscribe the blog from following you.

Image highlighting the steps to take to remove a spammer from following your blog. — How to remove a spammer from following your blog.

The spammer has now been unsubscribed from following your blog.

Spammers who follow your blog are more likely to try and flood your blog posts with spam comments because they get notifications when you publish new posts. You can mark any such comments as spam, but I’d recommend you unsubscribe them from following your blog.

Of course, there is nothing stopping spammers from subscribing to your blog again, but every time they follow, unsubscribe them. As I have found out with those dog breeder spammers, they soon get fed up of having to keep subscribing to your blog.

Let’s Wrap It Up

Don’t allow spammers, scammers or spambots invade your blog or stress you out.
Spotting spammers, scammers and spambots is easy to do. Follow the guide in this post.
Never approve or respond to spam comments.
If you’re unsure a comment is from a spammer, check out their website address first.
Always unsubscribe spammers, scammers and spambots from your blog. Follow the guide in this post.
Although the Akismet Anti-Spam software that WordPress provides catches the majority of spam, it won’t catch all of it.
Approving and allowing comments from spammers and spambots onto your blog posts will damage the ranking of your blog. It may also end up resulting in genuine readers clicking on the links in their comments or visiting their website and becoming a victim of scams or having their computer infected with malware.
Look after your readers, not the spammers, scammers or spambots.

How do you deal with spam, spammers and spambots on your blog? Share details in the comments section.

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9 Hidden Useful Tools You May Not Know About On The Posts Page Of A WordPress Blog

Published on Aug 7, 2023Aug 6, 2023 by Hugh W. Roberts63 Comments

Have you noticed the three horizontal dots next to your blog posts when viewing the ‘Posts‘ page of your blog’s dashboard on WordPress? If not, you’re missing out on some useful tools that will help save you time when blogging and make your blog posts appeal to even more readers.

Light blue image with the words '9 Hidden Useful Tools You May Not Know About On The Posts Page Of A WordPress Blog' in white text — Have you discovered these 9 hidden blogging tools on WordPress?

For the purpose of this post, I’m viewing my blog’s dashboard in ‘Default‘ view.

These three horizontal dots are known by numerous names, my favourite being a ‘Meatball Menu.’

Not sure what I’m referring to? Here’s a screenshot pointing out the meatball menu on the dashboard of the posts page of my blog.

Image highlighting a meatball menu on the posts page of a WordPress Blog — The Meatball Menu.

When you click on the meatball menu against a post, the three horizontal dots change to three vertical dots (known as a kebab Menu), and nine options appear.

Let’s investigate each option.

Edit

Click this button to edit or update a post. Useful when spotting mistakes. Don’t forget to press the Update button to save any changes you make.

View

This button does more than just show a preview of your post. It also offers the option of previewing the post as it appears on a desktop computer, tablet and phone. You should always preview your posts before publishing them.

The Search & Social button (at the bottom of the menu) allows you to preview your post as it appears on Facebook, Twitter (now known as X), and a Google search.
I recommend you always preview your post first to ensure they are mobile-friendly, especially given that most people now read blog posts on tablets and phones.

Promote With Blaze

Blaze is a way to pay to have a post advertised by WordPress, putting it in front of thousands of new readers.

You can advertise a post or page on some of the millions of pages across WordPress.com and Tumblr from $5 per day. This option is not available to bloggers who have a free WordPress plan.

Stats

Click ‘Stats‘ to check a post’s latest daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly stats.
For some WordPress plans, you can view a post’s stats for emails opened and how many people who got the email clicked the link to view the post.
You can also view who clicked the ‘like‘ button on the post and how often ‘like‘ has been clicked.

Under ‘Post Likes‘, hover your mouse over any of the profile icons to display the blog name of the blogger.
Click on an icon to view a list of that blogger’s blog posts, how many posts they have published, how many followers they have, a list of their most popular tags, and a follow button (WordPress.Com bloggers only). This is a great way to find new blogs to follow.
If you’re already following a blogger who has clicked ‘like‘, the ‘follow‘ button will be replaced with the word ‘following.’

Image showing details of a blog of somebody who clicked 'like' on a post. — Are you following somebody who clicked ‘like’ on your post?

To unfollow, click the ‘Following‘ button.

Comments

View all the comments that have been left on a post.

Along the top, you can view the following information for a post.

The number of comments it has received.

The number of comments that are pending (waiting for approval).

The number of comments that have been approved.

The number of comments you or WordPress have marked as spam.

The number of comments that have been sent to the trash folder.

Your replies to comments also show on this page.

You can also sort comments by newest first and oldest first.

With just one click, the ‘bulk edit‘ button allows you to perform a command (approve, un-approve, send to spam, send to trash). However, the ‘bulk edit‘ is only done per page, so if the post has many comments, you’ll need to bulk edit each page.

Image showing options in the comments section of a WordPress post. — An easier way to view comments on a post.

You can also perform the following under the comments link –

View the post.
Approve a comment.
Mark and send a comment to the spam folder.
Send a comment to the trash bin.
Like a comment.
Edit a comment.
Reply to a comment.

To the right of each comment is a ‘User Info‘ button. Clicking on this button reveals the following information.

The name of the commenter’s WordPress blog.
The commenter’s email address.
A link to the commenter’s blog/website.
The IP address of the commenter.

You’ll also see a ‘Block User‘ button when clicking ‘User Info.’ If you press ‘Block User,’ any further comments from that user on any of your blog posts are sent directly to your WordPress trash folder.

This neat button allows you to auto-share details of the post to the social media accounts WordPress have an auto-share facility with which you have connected to your blog.
Click on the ‘Share Post‘ button to share the post.

Image showing the auto-sharing facility behind the 'sharing' option on WordPress. — Have you set up auto-sharing for your blog posts?

The preview button displays your post’s appearance on Facebook, Twitter (now X), LinkedIn, Mastodon, Instagram Business and Tumblr (provided you have set up auto-sharing with them).
You can also manage all your social media auto-share connections by clicking on ‘Manage Connections.’

Copy Post

This is my favourite of all the options on the kebab menu.
Not only will clicking on this button duplicate your post, but the categories and tags of the post are also copied over.
This is especially beneficial if you run a daily/weekly/monthly blog challenge, series, or promotional posts on your blog.
It’s saved me lots of time by not copying, pasting, or redoing links, images, text, tags, and categories.
I also use the ‘copy post‘ function for posts with the same layout (such as my ‘Wordless Wednesday’ posts.
However, if you write excerpts for your blog posts (and I recommend you do), remember to change the excerpt before publishing the post. Otherwise, the excerpt may not make sense.

Copy Link

A link to the post is copied to the clipboard of the device you are using. You can paste the link into an email, message, website, blog post, comment, etc.

Trash

Clicking this button will send your post to the trash folder.
You can reinstate the post from the trash folder if you accidentally clicked it.

Let’s wrap things up.

There are nine hidden options available to WordPress.Com users on the page that displays their blog posts (and pages).
The options are hidden behind a menu known as a meatball menu.
The meatball menu opens up a kebab menu listing all available options.
Some of the options do exactly as they say on the can.
However, other options lead to lots more options and functions.
The comments option has a hidden ‘Block User‘ button – great for blocking comments from spammers or those you don’t want leaving comments anymore.
No need to copy and paste – The copy option copies an existing blog post and copies over the categories, tags and any images you have on that post, saving you lots of time.
It’s worth checking out all the options, especially as some are time-saving functions.

I hope you have found this post useful. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments section.

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Adding Images Or Photos To Your Blog Posts? 4 Essential Things To Do.

Published on Jun 12, 2023Jul 10, 2023 by Hugh W. Roberts126 Comments

Blog posts containing images and photos get up to 70% more traffic than posts without visuals. So why wouldn’t you use them in your posts?

Visual content is an essential component of any successful blog. Adding images, videos, and infographics to your blog posts can make your content more engaging and memorable.

An blue background image with the title of a blog post, 'Adding Images Or Photos To Your Blog Posts? 4 Essential Things To do' in white text. — Are you making any mistakes when adding images or photos to blog posts?

If you plan to include images or photos in your blog posts, there are four essential things to remember. These steps will help ensure your content is engaging and visually appealing while avoiding copyright issues.

1. Use High-Quality Images And Photos.

Always use high-quality images that are relevant to your post. Blurry or low-resolution images can detract from your message and make your blog appear unprofessional.

Additionally, using images that are not directly related to your topic can confuse readers and reduce the effectiveness of your post.

2. Ensure Images And Photos Are Not Copyrighted

Ensure you have permission to use any images and photos you include in your posts. This means sourcing images from websites offering free, non-copyrighted images (such as Pixabay) or purchasing the rights to use images from a stock photo website.

Not all images are free to use. And some that are free may only be free for a limited time. Always check the small print.

Don’t think you’ll ever get fined for using copyrighted images or photos. There are copyright bots continually looking for copyrighted images that have been illegally used and downloaded all over the web.

I know of two bloggers who have been fined for using images/photos on their blog posts that were not free to use.

To avoid copyright issues, use your own images and photos and watermark them before adding them to your blog posts. I use a free app called Photobulk to do this. Seeing a watermark is a great deterrent in persuading some thieves not to copy and use them.

Of course, if you’re not concerned about your photos and images being used by anybody else, you don’t need to watermark them.

3. Ensure Images And Photos Are The Correct Sizes.

Optimize your images for web use by compressing them to reduce file size.

Large images can slow down your website’s loading speed, negatively impacting your blog’s search engine rankings and overall user experience.

If you have limited space in your media library, not reducing the size of your images and photos will soon take up all your media space. When that happens, you won’t be allowed to download additional images to your blog unless you free up space or move to a plan that gives you more storage space.

I recommend reducing image and photo sizes to 900 x 675 pixels.

There are several ways you can reduce the size of images and photos. You can reduce them using photo editing software or your device’s software.

The WordPress media library also has editing software, but please note that if you reduce the size of an image or photo using this tool, the original image is kept in your media library when you reduce the size of the image- thus, you won’t save any storage space.

The newly edited image with the reduced size is added as a new file in your media library. You can always revert back to the original image by clicking on the image in the media library, selecting Edit, and then choosing the “Restore Original” button. If you’ve inserted an edited image into other published posts, reverting an image may break this image on those posts.

I use an Apple iMac and can change the size of photos and images by clicking on Tools – Adjust Size on the menubar of my desktop computer. I do this before adding them to my WordPress media library.

On a Windows computer, you can use Microsoft Paint. Open your image with that program, then click on Resize. You can find this option on the middle-right side of the “Image” section at the top of the Paint window.

However, as I mentioned earlier, you can also reduce the size of images and photos on WordPress. But only do this if your WordPress plan has a large storage space allowance.

To do this, ensure you view your media library in Classic view.

Click the edit image button on the image you want to edit.

Image showing the edit button of an image in the WordPress media library — Click the edit button.

Add the new dimensions in the Scale Image box and click the Scale button.

Image showing the new dimensions box and scale button on an image in the WordPress media library. — Add the new dimensions of your image.

Click the save or update button to save the changes.

Your photos and images will be reduced in size, but remember that a copy of the original is also kept, so you won’t save any storage space.

If posting to your site using the Jetpack App, the app can optimise images.

In the Jetpack app for iPhone, you can set the Max Image Upload Size so the original file is resized automatically when you upload it. This option can be found by going to My Site and clicking the profile icon in the top right, then choosing App Settings.

In the Jetpack app for Android, click on your profile icon in the top right corner and choose App Settings. There, enable Optimise Images to resize and compress images on upload.

4. Add information to your images and photos.

Don’t forget to include alt text and captions for your images.

Alt text is a description of the image that allows visually-impaired readers to understand what the image is conveying. At the same time, captions can add context and help readers engage with your content. This is especially important when participating in blog challenges such as Wordless Wednesday and Silent Sunday.

Screenshot of the Alt Text box, caption box and description box on an image in the WordPress media library. — Always add information about your images and photos.

Adding a description of the image or photo also helps with SEO searches.

Click the save or update button to save all the changes.

Following these four essential steps, you can create visually stunning and engaging blog content with images that stand out.

Let’s wrap it up.

Always use high-quality images and photos on your blog.
Never use images and photos that are copyrighted. You may be fined for doing so.
Use your own images and photos. That way, you won’t encounter any copyright issues.
Reduce the size of images and photos before loading them to your blog.
Alternatively, reduce the size of images and photos with WordPress’s tools in the media library, but only if you have a WordPress plan that offers a large amount of storage.
Always add information about images and photos before adding them to blog posts, as this allows visually-impaired readers to understand what the image conveys.
Adding a description of the image or photo also helps with SEO searches.

What do you use to resize images and photos for your blog posts? Do you always complete the details of images and photos in the Alt Text box? If you have any questions about adding images and photos to your blog, please leave them in the comments section.

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Should I Switch To The New Jetpack App Or Stay With The WordPress App?

Published on Feb 20, 2023Feb 20, 2023 by Hugh W. Roberts87 Comments

I’ve been contacted by several bloggers asking the question in the title of this post.

In March 2023, the WordPress app that many of us are familiar with will lose many key features. For example, you’ll no longer be able to access the WordPress Reader or view your blog’s stats.

But fear not because all the features the WordPress app bring have been transferred to the new Jetpack app.

Banner for the blog post 'Should I Switch To The New Jetpack App Or Stay With The WordPress App?' — Which app should I use?

Which app should I use?

If you want access to all the WordPress features you’re used to, switch to the new Jetpack app.

If you only want to focus on the basics of writing and publishing and have no interest in your blog stats, notifications of comments, menus and the WordPress Reader (to name a few), stick with the WordPress app.

Can I use both apps?

It’s not recommended that you use both apps. Managing your blog across both apps is unsupported and may lead to issues such as data conflicts. So I’d recommend sticking to one.

What features does the Jetpack app have?

Posts
Pages
Media Library
Comments
Site Settings
Stats
WordPress Reader
Notifications
Activity Log
Jetpack Social
Jetpack Backup
Jetpack Scan
Menus
People
Themes

With the Jetpack app, you’ll benefit from powerful tools to manage and build your blog.

Is the Jetpack app free?

Yes. There are no additional costs for using the Jetpack app.

What features does the WordPress app have?

From March 2023, only the features listed below will be available on the WordPress app.

Posts
Pages
Media library
Comments
Site Settings

How do I make the switch to the Jetpack app?

First, ensure you have the latest version of the WordPress app installed and are logged in to it.

If you’ve had (or get) an email from WordPress asking you to choose which app to use, click the link in the email to download the Jetpack app. If you’ve not had the email, click here to download the Jetpack app.

Once the app has been downloaded, open it, and you’ll be automatically logged in with all your data and settings in place. All your posts, pages, media library and anything else you have on your blog will also be transferred.

Remember to delete the WordPress app.

Any questions about switching to the Jetpack app? Leave them in the comments section.

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Do You Crave More People To Engage With On Your Blog? Check These Settings Now.

Published on Jan 23, 2023Jan 23, 2023 by Hugh W. Roberts83 Comments

How easily can all visitors engage with you on your blog?

Is it as easy as you think it is?

Banner for the blog post 'Do You Crave More People To Engage With On Your Blog? Check These Settings Now.' — Did you know that you could be preventing some visitors to your blog from leaving you comments?

After receiving an e-mail from Jean, who blogs at DelightfulRepast.com, who had seen one of my posts at the Senior Salon Pitstop weekly linky party hosted by Esme and Julie, I was somewhat concerned when she mentioned that it wasn’t easy for her to engage with me on my blog.

Jean explained that she didn’t want to leave her e-mail address, create a WordPress account or use social media to be able to leave me comments. I understand why she didn’t want to leave any of those details. After all, our information is private and shouldn’t be given out if we don’t want to give it out.

WordPress offers ‘Discussions‘ options where users can decide how easily readers can engage with them without leaving any personal details. I thought I already had this option switched off, so nobody needed to leave any personal details, and I was right, but it didn’t explain why Jean thought she had to leave her personal details if she wanted to comment on my posts.

Upon further checking my discussion settings, I saw where the confusion was coming from and want to highlight it so those who wish to engage with me without personal details can still leave comments knowing they do not need to give any personal information.

Let’s Look At The Discussion Settings On WordPress.

Ensure you’re viewing your blog’s dashboard in the Default view. To do this, click on the View button in the top right of the screen when viewing your blog’s dashboard.

Go to Settings – Discussion.

Screenshot highlighting the discussion setting on the dashboard of a WordPress blog — Make sure you’re viewing your blog’s dashboard in the Default view.

On the Discussions Settings page, look for the Comments box.

Image highlighting the Comments settings on the Discussion Settings page of a WordPress blog. — Look for the comments settings box.

As you will see from the above screenshot, I have turned off both the ‘Comment author must fill out name and e-mail‘ and ‘Users must be registered and logged in to comment‘ options. So why wasn’t Jean able to leave me a comment?

It seems that, for whatever reason, in their wisdom, WordPress has decided to still show visitors a login box when these options have been switched off. This is what Jean and visitors who are not logged in see.

Screenshot highlighting the login box when wanting to leave a comment on a WordPress blog. — The log in box tricks visitors into believing they have to leave personal details to be able to leave comments.

And this is what WordPress say –

Comment author must fill out name and e-mail: When this setting is on, anyone leaving a comment will be forced to leave a name and a valid e-mail address. If the setting is off, visitors can leave anonymous comments. While your commenters do not have to fill in the e-mail field if you’ve turned this setting off, it will still be visible to them when they comment.

So I understand why Jean thought I wasn’t making it easy for her to engage with me.

If you only want readers to engage with you who must leave their name and email address, ensure you have this option switched on.

If you only want comments from readers who are logged in and registered, ensure you have the ‘Users must be registered and logged in to comment‘ setting switched on.

If you want comments from both, ensure both settings are switched on.

However, if, like me, you’re happy to allow anyone to leave you a comment, then switch both of these settings off.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Save‘ button in the Comments settings box if you make any changes.

Are There Any Disadvantages To Switching These Discussion Settings Off?

The main disadvantage is that it could open the gates for spammers and trolls to leave you comments. However, the Akismet antispam software on WordPress catches and places the majority of spam into your blog’s spam folder, so you’ll never see it unless you check what’s in it.

Further down on the Discussion Settings page, there is more help to filter out spam and troll comments.

Look for the ‘Before A Comment Appears‘ box, and you’ll see these two options.

Comment must be manually approved: If this setting is on, all comments will go into moderation, and they will need to be approved by you before appearing on your blog.
Comment author must have a previously approved comment: If this option is on, any visitors that have had a comment approved on your blog in the past will get a free pass through approval and only comments from new visitors will go into moderation.

As you will see from the following screenshot, my blog is set for manually approving all comments before they appear on any of my posts.

Screenshot highlighting the 'Comments moderation' settings on WordPress — Decide which level of protection you want to stop the comments of spammers and trolls from appearing on your blog posts.

This helps me stop unprofessional, rude, nasty comments from appearing on any of my posts, even if they’re from somebody who has previously left a friendly comment.

My thanks to Jean for contacting me about discussion settings on blogs. And apologies for the confusion WordPress causes in insisting a login box shows when visitors do not need to leave any personal details when wanting to engage or leave a comment.

If you see a login box or are asked to leave your name and email address when leaving a comment, try leaving a comment without filling in personal details or logging in. If the blogger you’re engaging with has switched off the ‘Comment author must fill out name and e-mail‘ and ‘Users must be registered and logged in to comment.‘ options, your comment will go through.

If either or one of those options is switched on, you’ll need to follow the instructions to be able to leave a comment.

Let’s wrap it up.

Check the discussion settings on your blog to see if you’re preventing visitors from leaving comments.
Decide whether you want only certain visitors to be able to leave comments or if you’re happy for all visitors to leave comments.
The majority of spam comments will go straight to your spam folder. Remember to empty your spam folder regularly.
To stop comments from trolls appearing on your blog posts, switch on the ‘Comment must be manually approved‘ setting.
Consider whether comments from those who have previously left you a friendly comment do not need to be manually approved by you.

If you have questions about the discussion settings on your WordPress blog, leave them in the comments section.

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5 Powerful Blogging Tools That Will Get Your Blog Noticed

Published on Sep 15, 2022Feb 9, 2023 by Hugh W. Roberts77 Comments

Getting readers to engage with you by leaving comments on your blog posts is something many bloggers crave.

And when those comments clearly show that your post has been read, it’s one of the best feelings in the world.

However, once you get visitors reading your posts and leaving comments, you need to do all you can to ensure they keep coming back.

Writing good quality posts that make your readers want to engage with you and each other is one way to keep your readers returning, but you also need to ensure they can easily find your other similarly themed posts, which are often buried deep in your blog archives.

Banner for the blog post, 5 Powerful Blogging Tools That Will Get Your Blog Noticed — Need more readers and followers? These 5 blogging tools will help

Here are five blogging tools that work for me. Not only do they give my readers a way of finding more similarly-themed content, but these tools have also helped bring me many new readers and followers.

1. The Search Bar

The other day, I was writing a new blog post and wanted to include links to some posts I had read on other blogs.

However, try as I might, I couldn’t find one of the posts I wanted to link to. Even worse, there was no search bar on the blog concerned.

It wasn’t long before I gave up looking for that blog post. I didn’t have the time to find it.

You can make it easy for readers to find what they are looking for by including a search bar on your blog.

Does your blog have a search bar? If not, WordPress has a ‘search’ widget. Click here to find out how to install one.

Once you’ve installed a search bar, open up one of your blog posts and check you are happy with its position. Ensure it’s visible and easy for visitors to find. The search bar on my blog is the first widget on my widget bar to the right of all my blog posts.

Remember, too, that you can use the search bar when looking for your own posts. You can save yourself a lot of time by doing this instead of scrolling through all your blog posts on your blog’s dashboard.

2. The Menu Bar

Navigation is of prime importance on any blog. Make it difficult for visitors to navigate or find more content, and they’ll probably give up and never return.

That’s why it’s essential to have a menu bar on your blog.

A menu bar allows your readers to check out what is on your blog and helps direct them to other parts of your blog they’d like to explore.

Many bloggers can be frightened by including a menu bar on their blog or adding items. However, it’s an easy and straightforward process.

Click here for details on how to set up a custom menu bar on your WordPress blog.

However, don’t overload the menu bar on your blog, as it can look overwhelming. And ensure you keep it updated and check that everything works on it.

3. The ‘Contact Me Page

Just imagine another blogger, a magazine editor, or somebody from your local radio station wanting to contact you to invite you to write an article or appear on a show. How exciting would that be? But they can’t find a way of reaching you privately!

Not everyone wants to leave a comment when they want to invite you to write a guest post, be interviewed, or ask you to appear on a show. If you don’t have a ‘contact me’ page, and nobody can contact you privately, then they’ll probably move on and give that opportunity to somebody else.

On the menu bar of my blog, you’ll see a ‘Contact Hugh’ button. That’s how people can contact me privately.

I get lots of people contacting me every week. As a result, I’ve written guest articles, appeared on radio shows and recorded podcasts, all of which have allowed me to promote myself and my blog. In return, I’ve got hundreds of new readers and followers to my blog.

Make sure you’re contactable. Click here to find out how to set up a ‘contact me’ page.

4. The ‘About Me’ Page

Ever since my early days of blogging, I’ve been told that many new blog visitors will want to learn a little about the blogger behind the blog before deciding whether to follow.

When I visit a new blog, I first look for an ‘about me’ page to learn more about the blogger.

If the blogger doesn’t have an ‘about me’ page or it’s difficult to find, I’m more likely to move on than check out the rest of their blog.

If you do have an ‘about me’ page, ensure you allow new visitors to introduce themselves by allowing them to leave a comment on it. And don’t forget, a friendly reply is more likely to keep that visitor returning to read your posts.

Click here for details on setting up an ‘About Me’ page and what to include.

5. The Gravatar

The image that appears next to all comments is known as a Gravatar. A gravatar is created for you as soon as you leave your first review or comment on the internet.

How many times have you clicked on the gravatar image of somebody who has left an excellent comment on a post and not been able to find their blog details? Frustrating, isn’t it, especially when you think it may be a blog you’d like to follow.

Unfortunately, one of the biggest mistakes many bloggers make, as soon as their gravatar is created, is they forget about it. Many don’t realise they can add images and leave links to their blog and social media accounts on their gravatar.

If a reader then clicks on your gravatar, they’ll see the links to your blog and social media accounts and be able to visit them. That means more visitors to your blog and social media accounts which could result in more followers.

Click here to find out how to add links to your blog and social media accounts to your gravatar.

Let’s wrap it up

Many blogging tools can help readers notice your blog and keep them returning.
Make sure you have a Search Bar on your blog to help visitors find other content.
Ensure your blog includes a menu bar, but don’t overload it with too many items.
Ensure the links on your blog’s menu bar all work. Check for broken links at least once a month and fix any that have become broken.
Ensure your blog has a page where readers and visitors can contact you privately. Not everyone will want to leave a comment inviting you to write a guest post or to appear on a radio show or podcast.
Many new visitors want to know a little about the person behind the blog before deciding whether to follow. Tell visitors a little about yourself on an ‘about me’ page.
Ensure your Gravatar has links to your blog and social media accounts.

This is an updated version of a post originally published on Hugh’s Views And News in September 2018

What powerful blogging tools do you use on your blog, and why do you use them? Share them with us by leaving a comment.