Your blog is how you are branding yourself, right?

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It’s your online real estate.

It’s where you are attracting and connecting with the people who resonate with you and want to follow you.

When people come to your blog, it is kind of like they are coming to your home for a visit. Right?

The first thing they see is similar to someone walking into your living room.

Walking into someone’s living room should feel like: “Home, sweet home.”

When someone comes into your house, you want it to feel welcoming.

It should be the same with coming to your blog home page.

It should feel like . . . well . . . “Blog, Sweet Blog.”

Maybe your traffic is growing, but you aren’t getting conversions. It could have to do with your home page – perhaps they arrive and walk right back out the door before you can say “hi!” Check your analytics to find out what your bounce rate is.

It is important to make your blog home page separate from your blog posts page.

Because coming to your blog is like walking into your living room, you don’t want a new visitor to your blog to walk right into your kitchen when they arrive. That would leave them wondering what you are all about, sort of figuratively scratching their heads.

Rather, you want to have them walk right into the living room that you have prepared especially for welcoming guests to your online real estate. You want them to really get a taste to know what you are about.

That, my fellow blogger, would be an optimized blog home page.

Here are six home page tips so you can make the arrival to your blog as welcoming as if someone came into your living room.

1. Make your header be your overarching decor and include a smiling photo of you.

When someone walks into your home, they right away know something about who you are and what you are about by what they see on the walls. The deer head on the wall says you are a hunter. Vegetarian visitors might back right back out the front door and say “I’m out of here!”

Your header needs to give your visitors an overarching theme of what your blog is all about. A personal photo of you on your header lets your visitors know there is a real person they are connecting with here. Be sure to use a photo of you smiling. Nothing turns me off more than the image of the blog creator with a big frown on his or her face. Who wants to do business with a grump?

2. Offer a warm ‘about me’ page which is like a warm greeting at the door.

A down-to-earth ‘about me’ page is like a warm handshake or a hug – if you are the hugging type.  This makes you appear more human and less like an optimized machine. Use video when you can as it reveals a bit of your personality. Make it short because everyone is super busy and you can make an impression in a few short minutes anyway.

3. Giving a free e-book or video training is like offering your guest a cup of tea . . . or a big glass of lemonade if that is your preference.

You want to give them something of value. And the opt-in box that accompanies your free offer is like your invitation to say “Let’s visit again!”

4. Showcase your categories and pages which are like the rooms in your home.

Your visitor looks at your categories and pages and knows more about how he can benefit from your blog – and staying awhile. I am always perplexed when I see a blog that includes the months of posts rather than categories. How can I know which month to click in to find a topic that interests me? Some bloggers include a search box so by including a search box plug-in, your visitors should be able to find other posts that interest them, even if they are listed by months.

5. Include a comment box as your invitation for your visitor to speak out too.

When a visitor comes to your home, you just don’t carry on a one-sided monologue! Conversation should always be two-way. And that is why a comment box is important to include after each post.

6. Providing share buttons on the side is your invitation for your guest to invite his friends into your home too.

You want your visitors to know to invite their friends over too, don’t you? That is accomplished easily by the share buttons.

How do these six elements check out on your blog home page?

Do they make you feel at home?

Send me a link in the comments below and I’ll go check it out too.

Maybe we should coin a new phrase for our home page and call it “Blog, Sweet Blog.”

Photo Source: Microsoft Free Images

First published: Jan 2014

Updated: May 2018