In terms of design and functionality, certain business blogs are so bare bones, they look like a ghost town. Others are so loaded up with bells and whistles they look like a carnival. Somewhere in between is where you want to be. Whatever else you do, include these 9 features on your business blog.

1. Subscribe to comments. If you want conversation, you have to make it easy for people to converse. Comment subscription allows readers to get email updates of new comments made on individual blog posts. Result? More repeat comments, real conversations, deeper conversations.

2. Full RSS feeds. Partial RSS feeds provide subscribers with a teaser snippet instead of the full post. The idea behind this is to force subscribers to visit the blog. Bad idea. Number one, if you have to force readers to visit your blog, what does it say about your content? Number two, people on the web are on information overload and are looking for reasons not to read your material. Partial feeds don’t tease, they vex.

3. Display links to your social media IDs. This would not have been on the list a year ago, but now, it’s essential to give readers access to all your online connection points. Communicating on the various social media sites strengthens the sense of community among you and your readers, builds your brand awareness, and allows for the exchange of other types of information.

4. “About this Blog” page or post. Make it easy for new readers to understand where you’re coming from, what your blog is all about. Do you want to shamelessly promote your products and services? That may be OK if you are clear and up front about it. Orienting the reader, establishing clarity of purpose, setting expectations – these are qualities of a blog that inspire readers to return and refer.

5. Author bios. Blogging is a personal, conversational, intimate medium, and yet for some reason, business blogs frequently mask the identity of their writers. Why on earth would they do that? Anonymity stifles conversation and raises suspicion. Is this blog really interested in me – or merely interested in peddling its wares? Do you really want your readers thinking along those lines?

6. Simple and descriptive category structure. Categories displayed on the sidebar give readers a quick snapshot of your blog’s content. Don’t get cute with your category labels or create 50 categories. Keep it plain and simple. Besides helping your readers understand where you’re coming from, you’ll be doing yourself a favor for improving your Google ranking.

7. Recent posts. Perusing recent post titles is another way readers can get a quick fix on what’s happening on your blog. Again, make it easy for them by displaying 5-10 recent post titles on your sidebar. Bloggers think quality posts are timeless. While that may be true, readers often value recency as much as ingenuity. What have you done for me lately? It’s a question your readers are asking.

8. Easy to read archive. For those readers that really do want to dig in and explore your quality posts, an easily accessible and browsable archive is indispensable. Here’s what my archive looks like, fully expanded. Seems to be simple enough – what do you think? Of course, a strong archive hinges on strong post headlines – another topic for another day.

9. Custom, integrated design. If branding is important to your organization – and by gosh it better be – you must avoid the temptation to go cheap with a stock blog template. Not only should your blog design be customized to convey your brand, it should be patterned after the design of your main website. You don’t want readers to view your blog as an afterthought or something you whipped together in a flight of whimsy. If you don’t consider your blog an integral part of your brand, you’re not ready to start blogging.

Over to You
I’m sure I’ve missed plenty – what do you look for in a business blog?
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