How To Make Blogger Blog Look More Professional

Do you need to have a ton of content on your blog to look like a pro?

The answer is absolutely not! You can look like a professional blogger from day one by taking a few steps to make your blog look great and easy for visitors to navigate.

I'm about to share with you the blogging tips I wish I had in the early months with my blog. I had to learn these things the hard way. Slowly, and through trial and error.

But you get to learn them right here, right now!

Why do you want to look professional right from the start? Even if your blog is getting minimal traffic, if any, being set up for success from the get go can make it quicker to scale your blog.

People landing on your blog as visitors are more likely to take you seriously if you present your content in an attractive and easy-to-use way.

Plus if you are interested in working with brands, they will be far more likely to work with you if you have a beautiful shop window to catch their attention.

Having certain technical aspects for your blog set up from the start can also make it easier to grow your traffic faster, and keep visitors on your site for longer.

If you haven't yet got your blog set-up, here is a full guide to starting a blog.

Now on to the pro blogger tips!

Tips for looking like a professional blogger

Go self-hosted

If you want blogging to make you an income, then go self-hosted right away!

The cost is not that much, especially when you compare it to your other favourite hobbies that may cost you close to £100 a month.

Being self-hosted gives you greater control over the design of your site, means you can start to build up your DA (Domain Authority – a number between 1-100 which tells Google the authority level of your site) and lets you monetise your blog with ads.

If you're serious about giving blogging a go, then dive straight in with self-hosting. You have nothing to lose!

Create a logo

If you're as lacking in artistic ability as me the idea of this might feel a little daunting.

But do not worry! Your logo simply needs to be the name of your blog put together using pretty fonts and colours.

You can do these completely free using Canva. This fab site is also what I use to make my Pinterest pins.

Simply head over to Canva and take a look at their free templates. You could also try making a logo yourself from scratch.

Use a quality profile photo

Your website needs a photo of your face on there! Use one that is not blurry, clearly shows your face and looks professional. Drunk on a night out isn't a great idea!

Pick something that shows your head and shoulders. Use this image as your profile photo across your blog and social media platforms so that there is some consistency.

Start building your email list

It is never too early to start building your email list! While followers on Instagram and Facebook might look great, your email list is just as important. There are a few reasons why:

Your email list is yours. No algorithm change can hit it and while it's unlikely Facebook is going to be closed down, you never know when it might fail and suddenly your ability to reach your followers is hit.

Your email list can be more engaged. These are your top fans. You can form a proper conversation with them via email which can have big rewards as these people are more engaged with your content than your followers on social media.

It's easier to sell to your email list. With an engaged email subscriber you may see better affiliate link sales, and actual sales of products you may be selling.

So get going with building email list straight away. You can build your mailing list for free with services like Mailer Lite or Mailchimp.

You can build subscribe boxes to add to your blog posts and your blog sidebar to start gathering your subscribers right away.

Remember to set up your welcome email with a personal message and a link to a couple of your best posts.

You can try offering an opt-in freebie to tempt people to sign up. This could be something as simple as a checklist or cheatsheet. Canva has free templates you can use to create your own freebie for your subscribers. It's just a matter of deciding what freebie you could offer your audience.

Tidy up your permalink structure

Some blog themes automatically default to a permalink structure that includes the date you publish a blog post.

Don't fall into this trap. Check your permalink structure settings in the WordPress dashboard under Settings>Permalinks.

When you publish a post, it's a good idea to take a look at the permalink WordPress is proposing for the post so that you can remove short words like a and to, leaving just the keywords.

Use a beautiful, responsive, site theme

There are some great free WordPress themes to get you started. You can customise these with your brand colours and choose the fonts and layouts you prefer.

However there's no doubt that you get a whole lot more when you invest in a theme. They cost roughly £50.

Features that you may want to look for include:

Sticky menu bar
Sidebar features
Social media icons in menu
Mobile/tablet responsive – this means the site will adapt its design depending on what device your user is viewing it on

Get all your social media platforms up and running

Getting started with blogging can feel a little overwhelming when you then add social media to the mix.

But having your social media platforms running alongside your blog is important for several reasons.

One is that if you want to work with brands on sponsored content, pretty much any collaborative work is going to involve some promotion on social media through your channels.

Another one is it gives you more of a chance to promote your content, and also to connect more directly with your audience.

Have the right legal pages

There are a few legal pages that you need to have in order to comply with privacy and disclosure laws.

There's a full guide to which legal pages you need on your blog over on this post.

Make your blog super sticky

When writing and editing your blog content, make sure you are interlinking between your older posts. Then when publishing something new, add links to that in your older posts.

You can also try adding a "most read" section to your sidebar to attract visitors' attention.

It's important to keep people on your site as long as you possibly can. One reason for this is that if you eventually monetise your site with ads, you will make more money if visitors spend more time on your site and therefore view more ads.

The second is that it leads to more page views for you, which is great!

Once someone has landed on your site, do your best to hold their interest. If they click through a few of your posts and love your style, they may well convert to an email subscriber too!

Use attractive images

Whether you use stock images or can take great pictures yourself, it's really important to use beautiful photographs and graphics on your blog.

You can get brilliant stock photos from site such as DepositPhotos or Shutterstock. These sites will cost you money but occasionally deals come up.

Alternatively you can try Pixabay for free stock photography.

When making pins for Pinterest use relevant images and make sure the text you use on the pin is very clear. Avoid using too many italic fonts and make the text nice and big.

Write a great about me page

A killer about me page could land you sponsored work and gives your reader an insight into what you're all about.

Try to make it personal, offering background about you as well as what your blog is all about. Explain why you are the right person to offer amazing content on your chosen niche.

Research other bloggers' about me pages to get a sense for the tone and format.

Great about me pages are written in a light-hearted and conversational style.

Melyssa Griffins has great tips for writing a killer about me page.

Final thoughts on looking like a pro blogger

Follow these tips and you will look like a pro blogger even after just a matter of weeks!

You will also set yourself up to start growing your mailing list straight away, which is really crucial in the long run, and to start growing your traffic.

All the best!

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