One of the most essential things on a WordPress blog is the follow button. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to follow a certain blog, only to get lost on the main page or unable to locate the follower button. This could be costing you in followers and readers.

The follow button should be one of the most visible images or links on your blog. And this is only important if you’re blogging for your readers and not just for yourself. If you don’t plan to ever have a large number of readers, you can stop reading. But if you’re the type of blogger that a) wants their words to be read and b) wants to grow their blog, having an easily accessible “follow” button is the best thing you can do to encourage this.

It’s not the same as someone locating you through the “reader” app in WordPress. There are a couple of ways WordPress readers can follow you there. The “follow” button, in my opinion, is primarily there for anyone who may not be logged into WordPress. So this is useful for someone who locates your blog through a different referer like google search or Pinterest or any other social media platform. They will hit your homepage and could become a potential reader. And the first thing they’ll do is look for a way to follow your blog.

On my blog, I wanted a way that anyone could easily find the follow button so I added something that I knew would gain attention – a GIF:

Now I am not saying everyone should go out and find a GIF to use or make one and use it the same way. But it’s one way that I know will help that person looking at my blog to follow me if they want.

Make it easy for the person reading your blog because they are interested enough to be on your blog in the first place! Obviously, this requires that person to already be a WordPress user. But being “out there” for anyone to see is better than either not having a follow button at all, or having one obscured by too many other assets on your page.

I try to think of the homepage as a representation of who I am on the internet. And you want to be welcoming to the people who are there to read your content, right?

Also, consider the type of theme you’re using – the issue may be right there in the theme restricting your ability to advertise your blog to potential readers. These restrictions can be bypassed by using widgets on your sidebars. So definitely look into doing that or into changing that aspect of your theme so you can advertise your follow button clearly.

Here’s a quick summary of what you can do to improve things on your homepage:

1. Make your “follow” button easy for potential readers to locate and click on
2. Make sure your blog theme is “follow” button-friendly or look into using widgets on your sidebars for better visibility
3. Make sure your follow button isn’t “bogged down” by too many other images on your home page
4. Enjoy more readers on your blog!

I don’t often do this type of post, and I had this sitting in my draft folder for days so figured it was time to dust it off.

Let me know if any of this information is helpful for you in the comments!

Until tomorrow, stay safe out there, keep creating and I’ll catch you later.

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