first impression 300x198 The 8 things your blog must have to make a good first impressionOut of the hundreds of millions of blogs in existence today, whether it’s due to your promotion, a quality referral, or simply dumb luck, a reader somehow ends up on yours! So how do we ensure we captivate our new guest?

I think we can all agree that many blogs are terrible. Visitors can tell whether or not they want to be there in less than five seconds. And even if they stayed long enough to finish reading one article, they better have a reason to stick around.

You know what they say, you only get one chance to make a first impression so to ensure that you introduce yourself in the best way possible, here are 8 things that you should do to capture the attention of the newly acquired visitor:

1. Elegant design and usability

This is your chance to make an instant impression, literally. In a blink of an eye, the visitor could decide to stay or leave based on how your blog looks.

Your blog doesn’t have to be extremely graphic heavy but it must have at least the basic elements of good design and usability. That means it should be easy to read (e.g. font types, font sizes, background contrast) and easy to navigate.

2. Clear niche

The best blogs are often the ones that have an obvious topic. Sprinkling in off-topic posts are OK from time to time if you already have a large following but if you’re just starting up, I would choose a niche and stick with it. It should be really obvious what your blog is about.

3. Bio page

As I recently wrote in my first steps for brand identity article, you better have a bio somewhere. If it’s not a full page, then make sure there’s at least a small bio on the home page and/or the bottom of each article.

This is one of the first things new visitors will look for. Before they commit any more time to your blog, they want to know that you are an authority on your subject. This is one of your cornerstones to building that trust. A nice looking picture of you doesn’t hurt either.

4. Descriptive article titles

If you want your visitor to read other articles on your blog, then your article titles should be descriptive (and catchy) enough to coax them. For example, look at how I named three of my more popular articles:

Deep linking gives old posts new life

NoFollow vs DoFollow: Who wins?

Why having a blog is like having a girlfriend

You can pretty much tell what the articles are about.

5. Quality content

This is a no-brainer but how many times have you seen a good blogger post a bad article? Sometimes, these bloggers feel obligated to stick to a posting schedule and on bad days, they deliver a piece of garbage just to meet the quota. If it were up to me, I’d skip the bad article and leave the previous good article one up at the top.

Look at it this way, each article you write has a chance of being the first (and only) article a new visitor reads. That means you can’t afford to have any bad posts.

6. Descriptive anchor text

As I wrote in my anchor text for SEO article, you must consider how you’re labeling your links. The text will allow your new visitor to see other related posts.

7. Featured articles

Although you may be proud of all of your articles, some are classics that you don’t want buried deep inside your site. Make a featured articles area so they can be prominently displayed.

8. Good use of categories

Archives by month is nice but really, who uses those? People want to see a logical breakdown based on topics. That means you should have a set of sub-niche categories on your home page and nothing should be “uncategorized”. Keeping it to 4-7 categories gives you bonus points.

Related Posts on Free Blog Help Related Posts around the web