Emma aka Mrs Shilts is the blogger behind Life According to Mrs. Shilts, where she writes about family life, weight loss, travel and being a new mum to her lovely ‘Little Mr’.
First Impressions
What a pretty blog! Your template is very cosy; the soft warm colours and clear font make it classy and inviting. We love the name of your blog as it sticks in your mind.
We can see that you’re very PR Friendly, so we would love to recommend some ideas on how you might position your blog to make it even more attractive both to readers and potential advertisers.
Header and Menu Bar
Your header is gorgeous, but takes up a lot of space. If you wanted to make the very most of that valuable ‘above-the-fold’ space, perhaps you could look at reducing the depth?
We’d recommend removing the Weight Loss section at the moment (see below for a more detailed explanation). In its place, why not have an ‘Out and About’ section and include reviews of your favourite family outings?
We like the reviews page, excellent organisation there. Could you condense your ‘Contact Me’ and your ‘PR & Disclosure’ page into one, to free up more space in your menu bar?
As your son gets older, we’re sure you’re going to love doing lots of fun activities with him. Why not plan ahead with an ‘Arts & Crafts’ section, or similar? Perhaps you could also think of moving your Pregnancy Diaries section to your side bar, so the top menu can focus on all your current activities. This will also help you make the final transition from Pregnancy blog, to Mother and Toddler blog, and beyond!
TOP TIP: Remove the pregnancy and weight loss pages and replace with ‘Out and About’ or a ‘Craft’ section, or something along those lines.
Sidebar
Your follow buttons are brilliant, and your sidebar clear and uncluttered. We would recommend moving your Keep In Touch widget further up to attract more subscribers. Could you also bring your Search box higher? PRs will often use this to search your blog and see if you’re a good ‘fit’ for their client, and this would make it nice and easy for them to navigate.
TOP TIP: Move your Search box up so PRs can access it more easily.
Main Content
We’d recommend increasing the font of your post heading – in fact we reckon it could go up at least 50 percent to really draw the eye. Also, if you move your photos up to the top of the post (rather than a few paragraphs down) you’re creating something visual that pulls the reader in, which will then entice them to continue to read down the page. And make those gorgeous photos bigger!
You have a great blog that covers many topics. Have you ever thought about picking one particular aspect as your unique blog ‘hook’? For example, if you could use your lovely family life posts as your main focus, you could really establish a clear niche. This will give you a strong identity, and will also make your blog more cohesive and appealing to advertisers.
Your weight loss journey is obviously something you’re very proud of, and rightly so! But it seems to us that, since the birth of your gorgeous boy, your focus has naturally moved to him. The weight loss section seems a little out of place on your new, evolved blog at the moment and we wondered if it might make more sense to remove it from the header for the time being. If you decide to reintroduce it, perhaps make a real feature of it? Include a nutritious low-fat recipe section, or reviews of any weight loss aids you’ve been reviewing. We think this would be really appealing to readers. Let’s face it – all of us Mums can relate to trying to get back into shape after pregnancy!
TOP TIP: Focus on one area, and give your blog a strong, marketable identity, that will entice more people to read and more companies to want to work with you.
Final Thoughts
These are just a few thoughts to get you going. Enjoy your gorgeous little man; we look forward to watching him grow up on Life According to Mrs. Shilts.
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MrsShilts says
Thank you ladies, I will be taking on board all your advice to help take my blog forward x
Uju says
Glad you like our critique Emma, we wish you all the best as your blog evolves! 🙂