We’ve reached the halfway point of the blogging year. How are your stats for 2025? Are you happy with them?
Including this post, I’ve published 26 posts so far this year. It appears likely that my viewing stats are running at the same level as those of 2024, although this time last year, I had published 62 posts! Although there has been no increase in viewings, I’m pleased with how my blogging year is going so far.
This month, I bucked the trend and published more posts than previuos months this year. I ventured back into ‘Wordless Wednesday’ and published five posts.
I also wrote and published a piece of flash fiction. Even though my flash fiction posts do not get as much viewing or engagement as my blogging tips posts, it was great to be back with my flash fiction hat on.
Here’s your opportunity to catch up on my five blog posts from June 2025.
Blogging can connect you with thousands of people worldwide. However, oversharing personal details poses significant privacy risks, negatively impacts professional reputation, harms relationships, and may lead to legal issues. Are you taking enough precautions to keep yourself and your identity safe online?
Monitoring blog followers is crucial; spam-bots dilute engagement, pose security risks, harm SEO, and diminish your blog’s credibility. Do you know who is following your blog and how to remove unwanted subscribers? Read my post for further details.
How is your blogging year going so far? It’s hard to believe that by this time next month, we will be upon entering the second half of 2025. It appears that my blog is on track to receive around the same number of views as it did last year, despite publishing significantly less content. I’m pleased that engagement remains high.
In May 2025, I published three posts, the same as I did in April. However, this post increases that figure by one.
My last post this month resulted in quite a shock, as the number of bloggers who either did not know what Alt-Text was or who don’t use it was pretty high. Read the post to find out more, as given all the engagement, I’m not convinced that the blogging community is as inclusive a place as it should be.
In the meantime, here’s your opportunity to catch up on my three blog posts from May 2025.
Are you eager to reduce spam on your blog and connect with like-minded bloggers and writers? Are you excited about the possibility of updating your blog’s theme and curious about how to navigate any challenges that come with using an unsupported or retired WordPress theme? Read on for more details.
What answers would you provide if I asked you what alt-text means and what advantages it offers to bloggers?
What is alt-text, and why is it important?
Alt-Text (short for alternative text) is a commonly used term. It is essential to include it in posts that contain pictures, images or photographs. This unsung hero of the digital world ensures that everyone can access and benefit from the images included in your blog posts.
Blog posts that contain images, pictures, or photos attract, on average, 70% more traffic and clicks than those that do not. However, how many bloggers include alt-text information for these images, pictures, and photos? Unfortunately, the answer is not many. Furthermore, bloggers who fail to add alt-text to the images in their posts are missing out on providing some visitors with additional and important information.
Alt-Text assists those with vision impairments understand the content of the images and photos used in your blog post. Without it, they would be unaware, potentially missing out on crucial information. Imagine you’re showing off a brand new cover for your next book and don’t add alt-text to the image. They won’t have any idea what that new book-cover looks like. But that’s not all.
Utilising alt-text enhances your blog’s SEO rankings and helps search engines understand the content of your images. How will search engines determine what your pictures depict if no information is provided?
Search engine crawlers extract several key details from an image, including its file name, captions, title, and alt-text. When these details are absent, the post containing the images is ranked significantly lower. Visitors using a screen reader or other devices that inform them of the image’s content will remain unaware of what those images depict.
How to write alt-text.
When writing alt-text, keep it descriptive and straightforward—ensure it aligns with the content on the page. Include some keywords where appropriate, but avoid overdoing it. Keyword stuffing is not advisable, as it disrupts the user experience and can lead search engines to consider your site spam. Trust me, you don’t want that!
But where and how should you add alt text to your images, photographs, and pictures?
How to add alt-text to your images, photos, and pictures.
Click on the image you have uploaded to the media library.
On the right-hand side, you will see several boxes to which you need to add information.
Alternative Text – In this box, add information that describes what is in the image.
Title – Give the image a title.
Caption — Add a caption to the image, although you don’t need to if it’s unnecessary.
Description — Describe what’s in the image. You can use the same information you added for alternative text if you like.
File URL – This information will already be populated.
Here’s an example from my media library for the following photo.
A walk on the beach with Toby and Austin, the Welsh Cardigan Corgis.
Here are the details of the alt-text and information I added to the photo.
Always add Alt-Text information to images, pictures and photos
The next time you add an image, photo, or picture to your blog post, don’t just add the image and run. Make sure you include the details outlined in this post.
Summary
Alt-Text, or alternative text, is crucial for bloggers who include images in their posts.
It enhances accessibility for those with vision impairments, ensuring they understand the content represented in images.
Additionally, it plays a significant role in improving SEO rankings by helping search engines identify image content.
Despite these advantages, many bloggers neglect to add alt-text to their images, missing out on valuable audience engagement and search engine visibility.
To effectively write alt-text, it should be descriptive, straightforward, and relevant to the content, with a mindful inclusion of keywords.
Bloggers can easily add alt-text by accessing the media library and providing a title, caption, and description of the images.
Overall, including alt-text enhances the user experience and optimises blog performance.
Do you add alt-text and other details to the images and photos included in your blog posts? If not, what’s holding you back?
The featured image in this blog post is taken from Pixabay. AI checked spelling and grammar mistakes.
I’m getting tough with non-engaging comments. Comments such as ‘Nice post’ are marked as spam.
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In April 2025, I published three posts. I seem to be settling into a schedule of three posts per month, much less than what I was doing this time last year. However, engagement and views remain high, which I’m delighted about, given that I was concerned a drop-off in posts would mean fewer views and engagement. But that’s not true.
My last post, in April, was about commenting, which received the most comments. It’s a hot topic among bloggers, so I wasn’t surprised by the results. If you’ve not read the post and comments yet, check it out and join the discussion.
In the meantime, here’s your opportunity to catch up on my three blog posts from April 2025.
We all make mistakes while blogging. But what are these mistakes, and how can we resolve them?
Are you having any issues with your current WordPress theme? Are you using a Classic or Full Site Editing theme? Would you let AI help you change your blog theme? Join the discussion.
I only published four posts (including this one) this month, compared to eleven in March 2024. Yet, compared to March 2024, my blog only got around 100 fewer views.
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) continues to play a big part in bringing new visitors to my blog, so don’t allow those who say that SEO doesn’t matter to tell you otherwise. SEO is important if you want more visitors and potentially new followers to your blog.
If you have any questions about SEO, leave them in the comments section.
Here is your opportunity to catch up on my three blog posts published in March 2025.
Bluesky is an engaging social media platform for bloggers and creators. It fosters community despite challenges from bots and scammers. My ultimate guide to Bluesky includes details on engaging with other users and dealing with bots and scammers.
Engaging blog post titles are crucial for attracting visitors; they significantly influence click-through rates and post engagement. My post details how to create the best titles for your blog posts.
AI enhances blogging by improving efficiency, creativity, and SEO, but it also presents risks, such as a reduced personal touch and potential dependency. This post explores the benefits and drawbacks of using AI in blogging. Do you support using AI for blogging, or do you oppose it? Share your thoughts by joining the discussion.
You may have noticed that I’m publishing fewer posts than usual and be wondering why. Let me reassure you that everything is well with me. I would like to thank those who contacted me out of concern.
The main reason I am publishing fewer posts is to ascertain whether it affects the stats. So far this year, I’ve published seven posts (eight, if you include this one) and have had just under 9,500 views.
This time last year, I had published 20 posts and had 7,500 views.
So, publishing fewer posts is affecting my stats, but probably not in the way some of you would have thought.
Here is your opportunity to catch up on my three blog posts published in February 2025.
Discover the exciting possibilities of BlueSky for enhancing your WordPress blog! Connect easily, share your posts, and engage with a growing community of users.
An ‘About’ page is essential for bloggers, promoting connection, credibility, and engagement with readers through personal insights and mission statements. This post outlines the key elements of what information to include.
Hugh’s Views and News is at the heart of fascinating conversations and engagement. Have you participated in the debates and discussions? If not, why not join in and share your thoughts with us?
If you receive email notifications from WordPress about new blog posts, you might face difficulties leaving comments on certain blogs.
When I attempt to leave a comment, I receive an error message.
The error message.
This issue only impacts comments made when opening posts from email, not those via the WordPress Reader or the bell icon in the notification centre of my blog.
The issue still exists at the time of this post. However, I have found that comments go through when replying to the You can also reply to this email to leave a comment message (see the image below).
Leave your comment via the ‘You can also reply to this email to leave a comment’ link.
You’ll see that it’s like replying to an email rather than leaving a comment on the post, so press the reply button to the email, draft your comment and click the send button. When you check the post, you’ll see your comment unless it’s waiting for approval by the blogger for which you’re leaving the comment.
I recently came across this message. I’m unsure how long it’s been appearing in WordPress emails, whether WordPress has temporarily added it to email notifications to address the issue, or whether it’s a permanent fix. Next time I talk with WordPress, I’ll ask them and update this post.
The important thing is that this method of leaving comments works, so there’s no longer a need to remember to copy comments before submitting them.
Update: See the below response from a staff member at WordPress to me.
WordPress is working on the problem that is causing some comments to fail.
I inquired with WordPress about whether the text ‘You can also reply to this email to leave a comment at the bottom of their notifications is a recent addition. They confirmed that this specific wording is new; however, the ability to leave comments by replying to emails has been available for a long time.
Update 2
WordPress has now resolved this problem. I’m no longer seeing the error message.
However, if you still get the ‘Sorry, this comment could not be posted’ message when leaving comments, please contact WordPress.
Is this commenting problem affecting you?Please feel free to ask any questions by leaving a comment.
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Since BlueSky is new and (at the time of this post) has over 30 million users, it’s an exciting opportunity for WordPress bloggers to enhance their posts by adding a BlueSky sharing button at the end of their posts!
Let me empower your blog by showing you how to connect it to BlueSky. Many blogs have yet to embrace this fantastic feature (and it’s not only BlueSky that you can connect to your blog).
On the dashboard of your blog, go to Tools – Marketing.
On the Marketing and Integrations page, click on the Sharing Buttons icon.
click the Sharing Buttons icon.
Click on the Edit sharing buttons icon.
Click the Edit Sharing Buttons icon.
In the Edit visible buttons box, click on the BlueSky sharing button. If you do not already have it as a sharing button, it will be ghosted out.
Select the BlueSky sharing button.
Click the Save Changes button.
The BlueSky sharing button will now appear on your blog posts.
Visitors can now share your posts with BlueSky.
Click the Reorder button to rearrange the order of the sharing buttons on your blog posts. To do so, click on one of them and drag the button to where you want it to sit.
Click the Save Changes button.
How To Connect Your BlueSky Account To Your WordPress Blog
On the dashboard on your blog, go to Tools – Marketing.
On the Marketing and Integrations page, click on the Connections icon.
Click the Connections icon.
In the Share posts with Jetpack social box, look for BlueSky and click the connect button.
Click the BlueSky connect button.
Add your BlueSky Handle and BlueSky app password in the boxes and click the Connectaccount button.
Add your BlueSky details.
You’ll be asked to confirm your BlueSky account by clicking another Connect button.
Confirm your BlueSky account.
Your BlueSky account is now connected to your WordPress blog. WordPress will share your posts directly with your BlueSky account whenever you publish a new post.
Remember to connect other social media accounts to your WordPress blog by following the same instructions.
Are you on BlueSky? I’d love to connect! Please share your BlueSky details in the comments so I can follow you. If you have questions about BlueSky, adding a sharing button, or linking your BlueSky account to your blog, feel free to drop them in the comments section—I’m here to help!
I’m delighted to say that the problem has now been fixed. Unfortunately, users will need to change the ‘For each new post email, include‘ setting back to ‘Excerpt,’ as the fix has caused the setting to default back to ‘Full text.’
Do the following now if you want your new post email notifications to only show an excerpt.
On the dashboard of your blog, go to Settings – Newsletter.
Scroll down to the Emails sections of the Newsletter settings page, and change the ‘For each new post email, include‘ setting back to ‘Excerpt.’
Click the ‘Save Settings‘ button.
Change this setting to ‘Excerpt.’
Your new post notification emails will now only show an excerpt rather than the full post.
The ‘For each new post email, include‘ setting can also be found on your blog’s dashboard under Settings—Reading.
My thanks to Dave Martin at Automattic and WordPress for fixing this problem.
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Do you want to free up the time it takes you to filter through spam looking for genuine comments?
Turn this setting on now.
Does your blog get too much spam? Turn this setting on.
On your blog’s dashboard, go to Jetpack – Akismet Anti-spam.
Click Jetpack – Akismet Anti-spam
On the page that opens, look for the Settings box. Under Spam Filtering, ensure ‘Silently discard the worst and most pervasive spam so I never see it’ is selected.
Ensure ‘Silently discard the worst and most pervasive spam so I never see it’ has been selected.
Click the ‘Save changes‘ button.
You’ll now see much less spam in your blog’s spam folder.
Obviously, you can continue to review all spam, but this can be very time-consuming if your blog gets a lot of spam.
On average, I now see less than 10 spam comments per week in my spam folder. It used to be hundreds. Turning this setting on has helped.
On the same page, you can also see how much good work the Akismet anti-spam software has done in capturing spam comments on your blog. Here’s a snapshot of my blog.
How much spam has been blocked on your WordPress blog?
Akismet has caught over 308,000 spam comments since I started blogging in February 2014!
Occasionally, spam comments will get through, but you can help WordPress by marking them as spam. Likewise, if a genuine comment ends up in the spam folder by mistake, mark it as ‘not spam.’
Something else you may find interesting is that WordPress now deletes spam that is over 15 days old in the spam folder, so you no longer have to do it! Another win! Thank you, WordPress.
Don’t stress about spam!
I’ve come across some bloggers who allow spam to stress them. This does nothing but spoil the enjoyment blogging brings.
If your blog receives too much spam, turn on the setting outlined in this post. You’ll soon see a vast decrease in the amount of spam you see.
How do you deal with spam on your blog?
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Hugh's Views & News 