8 Things Your Blog Must Have

Last updated on 29 December 2024

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Before launching, read this list of 8 things your blog must have

It’s been a while since the first blog hit the internet (decades, in fact) and while the world of blogging has changed a lot since those early days, there are still some things that your blog must have in order to build an audience, grain traffic, and ultimately be successful in this internet-busy world.

I definitely didn’t have all of these things that a blog should have when I started in 2008. I didn’t really know what I was doing, and while I had some of the things we’re about to talk about I was in no way utilising all the ways I could have been fully growing and maintaining my blog.

By including the following elements, themes and pages in your blog right from day one, right from the moment, you hit ‘launch’ or ‘publish’, you’re going to a lot better, a lot faster.

So! Here are 8 things every blog should have

A consistent brand
A search bar
A photo of you
Easy navigation
An about page
A Policies page
A Contact page
A footer

A consistent brand

Ah yes. The branding. The style, the colours, the look, the feel.

I definitely should have been better at this from the beginning. When I first started I had a style and a header that I loved, but every few years I would change it. It’s important to note that it’s okay to change up your brand, especially if your blog is headed in a different direction, but I cannot stress enough the importance of not doing that every time you just ‘feel like a change’.

Keeping your branding to its simple self is important because people will grow to recognise what your blog is, what it looks it, and what it’s about. There are some really great tools out there for getting your branding right the first time, and you can definitely DIY it. However, if you really want to nail it the first time and you have no design background or skill, I recommend checking out the following Instagram accounts and Branding Strategists for some help:

A search bar

The amount of times I’ve searched for something on my own blog is countless. Your website needs a search function. Having a search bar means people can easily look for something on your blog to see if you have an article that is going to help them with their problem. It’s especially helpful if they’ve seen a post in the past but can’t quite remember how to find it: pop a few keywords into your search engine (which is easy to find, I should add!) and hey presto! There’s the post they were after.

A photo of you

People respond to faces. They are much more likely to connect with you and what you’re saying if they can visualise who you are. And a photo does this. It’s good practice to have a photo of yourself in your sidebar, on the main page (if you have one) and, of course, on your About page. As soon as people are more comfortable with who you are behind the screen, the more likely they are to come back and check out your future posts.

Photos of you make you a person and not just a collection of words organised into some resemblance of a sentence on a screen.

Easy navigation

If you arrive at a blog and you can’t find your way around easily, you’re not going to stay long.

Which means as bloggers, we need to have really easy-to-navigate structures and menus in place that help our readers and audience find their way around. Having a Menu that is constant is one of the best things you can do for your blog, but there are other options such as a Top Menu, which might sit above your header (as opposed to below it like mine), and other menus along the sidebar or even in the footer.

Categories and tags also aid in navigating around your blog. Every post should have a category and/or tag so that when people stumble upon or arrive at a post they really enjoy, they can easily click the category or tag and find other posts on the same or similar topics.

An about page

When people arrive on your blog, they’re going to look for a few things in particular. First, the post that they arrived at your blog to read, and secondly all about the person who read it. Usually, it’s good practice to have a sidebar and to have an image of yourself on said sidebar so that no matter what post or page your viewers are on, they immediately know a little about the author, aka you.

But a short snippet of a text and a smiling image, while it does say a lot, doesn’t say enough for your readers to be comfortable with who you are and why you’re talking to them.

Having an About page is one of the best ways to both introduce yourself to readers (especially new ones) and to gain trust. If you’re open and honest about who you are and what your blog is about, the more people are likely to stick around. You can head to my About Page to learn more about me, or find out how to write the perfect About Page here.

A Policies page

If you are working with other bloggers, with brands and companies or even selling your own products, then you need to have a Policies page. This is simply a page where you outline all the Policies that your blog has, in a simple to read and understand format.

On your Policies page, you need to outline how people can work you, what you expect from them and what they can expect from you, any refunds you offer, and, perhaps most importantly, how you respect people’s privacy and use any information they give you (like email address, for example).

A Contact page

You might be missing out on tons of connection-creating, work, or opportunities if you don’t have a contact page. Your contact page needs to have all the ways that you would like people to be able to get in touch with you, including an email address.

A footer

How many times do you find yourself looking at someone’s footer on their website? If for some reason you can’t find something, the footer is often the place where there will be a link to exactly where you need to go. Putting relevant information in the footer of your blog is one way you can direct people around your blog and also to where they can find you elsewhere online.

Bonus

An email opt-in

You don’t own your social media channels. If Zuckerburg decided to can Facebook today, all your Facebook Page followers and Instagram connections would disappear in a flash. You have no control over those platforms. But what you do have control over, what you do have ownership of is your email list. That’s why it’s so important to grow your email list right from the beginning. There are plenty of ways to grow your email list, and while it doesn’t matter what you settle on, it matters that you have one.

Trust me. It’ll pay off in the long run.

Do you have all of these on your blog? Flick me an email if you don’t, and we can chat about how you make it better.