When you create your blog you need to make it not only a useful resource for people, but structured in a way that they can easy find and browse your content.
With this in mind, here are some key features to put on your blog:
Categories
A great way to divide up your blog posts and make your site easily navigable. Categories tend to develop naturally on some blogs, creating new ones when the need arises. However, be careful not to have too many, since this can become confusing for your audience, creating too much choice.
Tags
Unlike categories there is no limit to the number of tags. It gives your readers more choice and it may turn out that posts you didn’t expect turn up in the same place. Some blogs also contain a tag cloud, a great way of presenting your tags in a searchable manner.
Recent Comments
A list of the top five most recent comments will encourage people to engage with the conversation and leave a comment themselves. At the beginning of your blog this can be quite an empty box, so it may make sense to add this feature once you have a few comments.
Archives
Another great way for people to search your blog. It gives a nice history as well if your readers want to know a bit more about how the blog has grown.
A Search Bar
This one doesn’t really need an explanation, but is an absolute must!
A Blogroll
A blogroll is a list of blogs you read. This is a great resource for your readers to find other sites they may find useful. Don’t worry about them moving away from your site to read other people’s material, if your content is good enough they will come back.
RSS Feed
A little outdated as a way of bookmarking and following blogs (though I still use them), an RSS feed is a must for so many programmes and features. News readers like Google Reader use RSS feeds, and it enables you to send out automatic email updates from your blog using applications like Mail Chimp.
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