So you have easily started a blog and now it is time to go live. However, are there things to do after starting a blog that you should know about?
In reality, there is nothing stopping you from just publishing your blog and doing nothing else.
You can go on blogging and there is nothing wrong with that. However, you might not see the success you are looking for if you do not take care of some blogging essentials.
There are some things you should be doing to ensure that your blog gets started on the right foot. Things like social media, outreach, and SEO need to be taken care of after you launch.
This post will take a deeper look at the things to do after you start a blog. If you have already started your blog, that is also ok. It is never too late to start applying these methods and see their benefit.
Let’s get started.
1) Create Social Media Profiles
Social media is one of the best ways you can promote your blog and reach new audiences.
Social media platforms have millions of users. For example, Facebook has a whopping 1.71 billion monthly active users and Twitter has over 313 million monthly active users.
Start by creating profiles on the most popular ones such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus. Pinterest is also a good option for some niches.
Whenever you create a blog post, you can also post it on social media to broaden your reach. Even if you do not have anything to post yet, it is good to register your profiles to make sure you can get the ones you want.
2) Create An About Page
Every blog should have an about page, and creating one is one of the first things you can do.
This page will tell your readers a little bit about your blog is going to cover. It is a great way to provide a sort of introduction to your blog and also establish a relationship with your readers.
Here are some useful tips for writing an about page: 10 Rules For Writing an About Page.
3) Submit Your Site To Search Engines
Search engines are a valuable source of traffic.
What many beginners do not know is that you can submit your site to search engines. Both Google and Bing let you submit your site to them.
You can do this with Google by visiting their URL submission form here, and with Bing’s tool located here.
It is also good to set up webmaster accounts with both and also submit your sitemap to both. You can get a sitemap by installing an SEO plugin which will be discussed later in this article.
4) Name Your Site And Enter A Description
This one is simple but it is also easily overlooked.
Your site name and description are important to set up and will appear in search engines and on browsers.
In WordPress setting, both the site name and description is an easy task. All you need to do is go to Settings > General and you can fill both of these in (tagline is the site description).
Your site description should be a short blurb about your site and what it covers.
5) Install An SEO Plugin
There is a lot to know about SEO (search engine optimization). Luckily, if you are using WordPress, there are some great plugins you can install that will take care of it for you.
An SEO plugin will help you optimize your meta tags, create a sitemap and more.
One popular free plugin that you can use is Yoast.
WordPress is great because it takes care of 80-90 percent of the SEO for you right out of the box. With an SEO plugin, you can get even more optimization and control over your SEO settings.
6) Install An Image Optimizing Plugin
One mistake beginners can make is just uploading images without doing anything to them.
Over time, the images you upload to your site can start to add up and take up a lot of space. Images are an important part of blogging, and simply not having them is not the option.
The solution is installing an image optimization plugin that reduces the image’s size automatically when you upload them. These plugins reduce the file size of your images without any visible loss of quality.
You can free up space and make your page load faster without having to worry about quality loss.
Two popular plugins you can consider using are EWWW Image Optimizer and WP Smush It. They are both free and will automatically optimize your images for you.
7) Change Your Logo
If you have not already done this, it is important to get a professional looking logo up as soon as possible.
Your logo will be on every page of your site, so it is important to get one that looks great.
With most good WordPress themes you can either have a text logo or a picture logo.
There are plenty free resources for creating logos. if you are good with design, you can try to make your own logo.
However, if you do not have much experience designing or just do not want to do it yourself, you can hire a professional to do it for you. This way you can be sure your logo is going to look good.
There are plenty of resources online where you can hire a logo designer, a popular one being 99designs.
8) Upload A Favicon
Just like your logo, a favicon is also important to have.
A favicon is a small image that appears on browsers when visiting your website.
You can make your favicon by yourself, or once again hire someone to do it for you. If you are getting your site logo designed by a professional you can also ask about getting a favicon done.
Creating a favicon is not that hard and you may be able to do it yourself. A great tutorial on creating a favicon in 8 steps can be found here.
9) Let Others Know About Your Blog
Letting your contacts know about your blog can be one of the first ways you get traffic.
Share your blog with your friends and family and on your personal social media profiles if you have them. This can also be a great way to get feedback on your blog so you can make any changes if necessary.
If people like what you have shared with them, they may even share it again with all of their contacts on social media, by email, or in other ways, which can bring in even more traffic.
Outreach is a great way to get your first traffic and is something that should be considered once your blog is launched.
10) Plan Out 5-10 Post
Lastly, you should do some planning out of your blog posts.
This can be as simple as choosing 5-10 titles for your posts. Planning out a few posts is a great way to get your blog organized and also set goals for yourself.
Over the next few weeks, you can work on turning those ideas into blog posts. By the time you are done, blogging should feel a bit more comfortable and you can work on getting the next posts planned out.
If you are not sure what you want to write about, here are over 200 blog posts ideas you can use for inspiration.
Conclusion
There you have 10 things to do after starting a blog. Hopefully, you can apply these to your blog and will see their benefit.
You do not necessarily have to do all of these at the same time before you launch your blog. If needed, you can take care of these over a period of time.
You may choose that some of these are not the right fit.
Perhaps you have chosen that you do not want to include social media in your marketing strategy. Although it is a great way of connecting with new audiences, social media does require a time commitment that some may not be interested in.
If this is the case, you may want to try only one platform such as Facebook or Twitter to start. There are social media tools available such as Buffer that can help you automate social media and save time.
After starting a blog, implementing these 10 things will help get it set up for blogging success.
If you still need help setting up your blog, see this step-by-step tutorial on how to start a blog in as little as 20 minutes.