It’s your first website and you’re excited to get started, but don’t be in a hurry. If you want the blog to look great and professional, you must follow these steps to create your first blog. This is the beginning of your blogging journey and your newfound success.
Your first website starts with a name
Every blog has a name and a topic to which he focuses. You want to create a name that is both memorable and reflects your style. There are blogs on every subject, including travel, and you can blog about your travels.
Reading: How to create a business blog from scratch
You can create a Create a blog based on your professional business such as a travel agency or a hobby. Your imagination is the limit when it comes to topics, but it all starts with a name.
Why is the name so important? It’s what people will remember about your blog and when it comes time to create your blog domain you can have the name in it which helps with search engine optimization.
Once Once you have the name, it’s time to buy your URL.
Selecting a URL and Hosting
There are several websites where you can buy a domain. Given the large number of sites, it’s possible that your first choice isn’t available, so have a few backup names just in case. If you’re not willing to spend money on a blog, you can get one for free through sites like WordPress.com where you choose your blog name.
It will be a subdomain of the main site, so the URL would be like yourdomain .wordpress.com look like. This is a cheap alternative since you don’t have to pay for the URL or hosting, but it also limits your ability to analyze and customize.
If you buy your domain, you also need a hosting provider. Think of it as the real estate your blog sits on. This is where all your information for your website is stored and what is used to create the blog and display it when people visit it.
Types of hosting
There are three main types of hosting:
- Shared
- Dedicated
- Virtual Private Network (VPN)
Shared hosting is the Place where you share a server with many other websites. The benefit is that this is the easiest and cheapest option, but the downside is that you are sharing resources with several other websites.
If one of these websites has a sudden spike in traffic, they can give you resources and cause your website to slow down or even crash. Shared hosting is the starting point for many blogs as they don’t get much traffic initially. As your blog grows, you can switch to a dedicated or VPN.
A dedicated server means you have a server all to yourself and don’t have to worry about other websites stealing your resources. This gives you the ultimate in customization and helps ensure your blog can handle jumps in traffic. It is the most expensive of the three options.
The middle ground is a virtual private network. This gives you a shared server, but resources are allocated specifically for your site. The server is shared with multiple websites, but they cannot steal resources.
Investigate your blog platform
If your hosting is the property your blog is on , then it’s the blog platform the house. There are many platforms from WordPress to Wix and each has its pros and cons. WordPress is the platform built specifically for blogs, and there are both free and paid options for building websites.
If you want a standard template, you can find a wide range for free. If you want customizations or want to have a web developer work on the site, you’ll have to pay for a customizable template that gives you complete freedom.
See also: Get started with WordPress
Your platform is the most important decision you make with your blog. Some platforms have a simple interface where you can drop and drag items, and others are more complicated but give you more freedom.
If you want a default template that gives you limited customization options, you can for create free on multiple platforms. If you have a more complex website or intend to sell goods from your website, you need something more robust. The cost of a fully customized e-commerce website can run into the thousands of dollars to have a web developer working on it.
When building your website, it is important to install Google Analytics and the Google Search Console.These are two important and free tools from Google that you can use to analyze everything from traffic to the search terms people are using to get to your site.
Choose responsive design
While many platforms have this by default, it’s important to have a responsive design for your blog. Mobile search far surpasses desktop search, and phones have several different screen sizes.
Responsive design shrinks and manipulates your website so it looks good on any screen used, from mobile to tablet. Google has prioritized mobile, and mobile-friendliness is a ranking factor.
Everything from page load speed to user experience matters to mobile. Google recently switched to mobile-first indexing, which bases your ranking on your mobile site.
Don’t be afraid to make changes
Web design is an art and can change from year to year to year change to year. Don’t get stuck with one template for your website and don’t be afraid to refresh the look every few years. The last thing you want is for your website to look old.
Change is an important part of blogging. It could be changing your logo, your website layout, or adding customizations to truly make the blog your own. Don’t let your blog design get boring and make changes from time to time.
Time to write
You have fully set up your website and now it’s time to start creating To start, content.Search engines like Google rank your blog posts based on several factors including keywords, expertise, etc. You need to consider search engine optimization when creating your blog posts.
The more content you put on your website, the better Google will rank you for.Remember that ranking takes time and your competitors may have had years to build their blogs and credibility.
There are probably certain evergreen topics that you and it’s good to have them on your site, but don’t forget to be creative, if you’re one of a hundred pages with the same blog topic, you’re going to have a hard time ranking.
Create a list e with potential topics and then develop a keyword list for each one. There are programs like SEMRush that can help you not only with creating topics but also with developing keyword lists and competitor reports.
Your blogs should be informative and fit your style. It can be professional, lighthearted, or a mix of both. When writing your blogs, keep your audience in mind and remember that Google wants blogs with expertise, authority and trustworthiness.
The more blogs you write, the more opportunities you have to rank on Google. You might want to start out blogging at least one a day to build your content, and then switch to weekly when that productivity is too much for you.
Keep SEO in mind
Organic search traffic is still the most common way to generate traffic for blogs. When people are interested in something or want answers to their questions, they google it. You want your website to be filled with information.
See also: How To Start A Programming Blog In 2023: Step-by-Step Tutorial
Search engine optimization is any effort you make to rank well in search results. It includes keyword lists, optimized content, backlink building, and technical SEO like page load speed.
When it comes to attracting traffic, every little bit helps. Programs like SEMRush allow you to scan your website and provide information about common SEO issues and problems that you can then troubleshoot.
Marketing outside of SEO
The only way you’ You gain traffic when people know and see your content. Digital marketing efforts build your reputation and help get your content in front of people.
If you have a marketing budget, consider PPC advertising on Google Ads, Facebook, and other social media platforms pull. Google Ads is the industry standard, offering search ads that appear before and below organic search results, shopping ads when you sell products, video ads for YouTube, and display ads that appear on certain websites.
During SEO costs no money, PPC advertising requires a monthly budget. You create the ads and the campaign, and Google uses your budget to determine if and where you place. A well-run campaign can generate significant traffic, but a poorly-run one can bring you no money and little traffic.
Social media like Facebook and Instagram are a great way to build an audience and showcase your blog posts.Build likes, followers and share your blog posts so people can read them as soon as they are online. Many social media platforms have made it difficult for everyone to see your posts, so you may need to put some cash behind some posts to give them some reach.
Email marketing is one of the oldest and best methods of bringing people to your website. Sign up for the newsletter on your website so people can give you their email address and you can send them information about new posts, special announcements, and so on. we talked about adding Google Analytics and Search Console to your website. These are great tools for providing information on how your marketing efforts are going. You can track traffic over time and by page, set goals, and more.
Google Analytics can be complicated to use, but it’s a wealth of information. For example, if you started SEO a few months ago, you should be able to track how your traffic has changed month-to-month.
You can see how much traffic is coming from social media , email marketing, organic and paid advertising. If you’ve set up a specific page for ads, you can see how many hits that page got.
Google Search Console tracks backlinks, search terms, and more. If you want to dig even deeper, programs like SEMRush have a whole range of tools available to help you better understand how your marketing efforts are working and how you can improve them.
Be prepared for the long haul
Blogging is a wonderful way to share your knowledge, but it takes time to build an audience and following. There are blogs with millions of viewers every month, but you have to be patient. It can take weeks or months to start ranking on Google and you will slowly move from lower to higher ranks.
Popular blogs take years to gain followers and you need a steady one Stream of content so they can process it. Eventually people will see you as an expert and seek you out. You can guest post on other blogs and be used as a source for news articles.
If you want to make your blog popular, you must be patient and not give up. The internet is littered with abandoned blogs that people like you started and wanted to build a blogging empire.
The main difference between you and them is the pursuit of success. Creating your blog is the first step to the success you want.
Start your blogging journey
Your first website will never be forgotten. Even if you become successful and build a dozen sites, you will always be special first. It’s the one that got you through the teeth and everything you need to know about blogging and digital marketing.
If you want to learn more about starting a blog or digital marketing, please explore our site .
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