Have you ever wondered why you have a sidebar on your blog?
Do you want to make the most out of this space?
In this guide, I will give you some valuable tips to help you optimize your blog sidebar.
Most businesses have a sidebar on their blog because it seems to be the standard especially with the likes of WordPress adding this sidebar as default.
It is surprising how many businesses just go with this and not realize the importance of it or how to turn it into a powerful conversion opportunity.
If you’re reading this now then you have probably already thought to yourself “is there something I can do with this sidebar to help generate more leads.”
That is the first step so well done you.
The next step is understanding sidebar opportunities and what changes you can make to it to improve your opt-ins.
Since there is no time like the present, let me get started on explaining all of this.
Decide What Goal You Want to Achieve
Before you start making changes to the sidebar on your blog, it is important to determine what your goal is.
Once you have determined your goal, you will be able to make more educated on what features to add to your sidebar to help you achieve this goal.
One of the most common goals for the blog is to build your email list by encouraging subscribers.
As you build your email list, you can get continue to send contacts content from your blog so as to nurture them into paying customers.
You will also be able to learn a lot about which content generates more interest than others so as also continuously to improve your content marketing strategy.
If building your email list for nurturing is your main goal then there are plenty of ideas in this guide that will help you reach that goal.
Create a Mini Bio to Build Rapport
Image Source: Hongkiat
It is well known that people connect with people who are why putting a face to the blog will help build rapport with your readers.
There are many businesses who have a blog, but they seem very cold and not personable.
This is because they don’t have real people as authors, and they use wording such as “we” instead of “I”.
People can engage better with other people than with corporate feel blogs which are why adding a mini bio to your sidebar will help your readers engage more with your content.
Include a happy looking photo of yourself and a few short lines about you and why your blog is going to help readers.
If you want to explain your story further then you can link to the “About” page from the mini bio in the sidebar.
Add a Compelling Opt in Lead Magnet
Image Source: Neil Patel
If your main goal is to build your email list, then the sidebar of your blog is the perfect place to position an opt-in lead magnet.
Make sure that you place the opt-in form at a point on the sidebar where it can easily be seen when a user first lands on your blog and also as they begin to read a post.
If users aren’t able to see the opt-in form, then they won’t convert.
As well as making your opt-in lead magnet easily visible on the sidebar of your blog, it is also important to make sure the offer is something that will be of value to your readers.
If the offer is vague, isn’t relevant or isn’t of value then your readers aren’t going to opt in.
You can find some great lead magnet ideas by looking at competitor websites as well using tools such as BuzzSumo to see what content your target audience most engages with.
Add Social Media Snippets to Build Trust
Image Source: MOZ
Going back to the point that people connect people, it is also a good idea to display a snippet of your Twitter feed so readers can see that others are interacting with you on social media.
Knowing that other trust you will help to establish trust with new visitors.
Marketers always talk about how it is important to add trust signals to your landing pages to improve conversion rates but never really talk about adding trust signals to your blog which is where a lot of organic traffic can land.
Adding a snippet of your social feeds will act as a trust signal.
You can also add social follow buttons to the sidebar of your blog so encourage this level of interaction with readers.
Add a Clear Search Box So that Content Can be Easily Found
A lot of people want to find information quickly and don’t want to waste time having to browse through hundreds or thousands of blog posts to do so.
If a user can’t find the information they are looking for quickly, they are more than likely to click from your blog to find an alternative blog which is more than likely going to be a competitor of yours.
After you have worked hard to get users on your blog, you want to keep them there by offering great usability.
You can give your users great usability by adding a clearly visible search box.
Do not blend this into the background or have it too low down so users have to scroll to find it.
Make the experience easy for your users by adding the search box towards the top of the blog sidebar and making it clearly visible.
Display Your Most Popular/Relevant Blog Posts to Entice Users to Stay
After working hard on your content and getting people to land on your blog, you want them to stay and carry on reading.
You can so this adding both a most popular blog post list and a relevant blog post list to the sidebar of your blog.
If a user sees a list of your most popular blog posts, it will pique their interest and wonder what it is that has made it so popular.
If a user wants to learn all, there is to know about a certain topic then having a most relevant section in your sidebar will help keep them on your blog as they will want to keep gathering information.
If you don’t promote any of your popular or relevant blog posts, then you aren’t giving them enough of a reason to stay on your blog.
Add Images for Your Offers
If you have any special offers for your products or service that you would like to promote then creating an ad style image on the sidebar of your blog is a great way to do this.
This will help improve conversions from your blog especially if the product or service offer is relevant to the blog post the user is reading. You can do this by creating dynamic images for your blog sidebar.
You can also use space on the sidebar to create an ad style image if you have an upcoming event or podcast you would like to promote.
Whatever valuable offer you have to promote, promoting it on the sidebar of your blog is a great place to do so.
Do Not Add Too Many Ads
While it is recommended that you use the sidebar of your blog to promote any offers or upcoming events you have, it is important not to have too many promotions as it can look spammy.
The same goes for if you use your blog to place ads from other websites.
Having too many ads on the sidebar of your blog can not only make your blog look spammy and discourage users from fully trusting you, but it can also lead to distractions from your main goal which is to build your email list.
High Contrasting Call Too Actions
Image Source: Smashing Magazine
If you have any actions on the sidebar of your blog that you wish users to take then make sure they see it by adding a high contrasting call to actions.
If you want users to subscribe to your newsletter, then make sure they can see the call to action by making the color of the button contrasting to the background it sits on.
There is no point in having a great call to action and a great offer if your users can’t clearly see it or draw their eye. If your main goal is to build your email list, then this should be a priority change for your blog sidebar call to actions.
Conclusion
When reviewing what should and shouldn’t be in the sidebar of your blog, think about what will be beneficial to the user and what will improve their experience.
Thinking like this will help build trust with users and will also keep them coming back.
Have you ever thought about the sidebar on your blog being a converting tool?
Let me know by leaving your comments below.
Great article guys. This is something I have been recently be trying to implement. Is there any plugins or tools that help customize sidebars on websites as I don’t have coding knowlefge
I don’t have any coding knowledge either 😛
I use a fixed sidebar widget and also call to actions to open ClickPops for lead generation. That way it follows you down as your visitors are reading
Stephen,
Thank you for a fantastic article. I have been building blogs for many years now and I learned some great information that will help with conversions. I am looking forward to more great information packed posts. Thanks again.
Tony Goff
Really glad you liked it! Yep conversions can be raised really high just by using your blog’s sidebar well.