So, you’re thinking of starting a blog this year? Not a bad idea, really. But there is something you need to consider before you do start.

I don’t want to bore you with a long introduction that you don’t want to probably read anyway. All I can say is that the world is changing, and so is the internet, which is why I have put together for you a list of things you must know before starting a blog in 2020.

Keep those things in mind, and you’re golden. Enjoy!

1. Blog saturation

The very first thing you must know before starting a blog in 2020 is that it’s pretty damn saturated out here. No, seriously, every niche that you can think of, profitable and non-profitable, is crowded. But does that mean that you should not start a blog?

Of course not!!!

You just need to be very realistic about your expectations. But most importantly…

You need to decide on how are you going to be different from everyone else!

Think about it this way, how many different coffee shops you know in your area? What about pizza places? How many different car brands exist in the world at the moment? What about mobile phone strategy games? That’s right, a ton!

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Regardless of how much there is of any one thing, there is always that special one that stands out. Do you see where I am going?

Why do you like a certain car brand over another one? Why do you choose to get coffee on the street to the right of your house instead of the one on to left of your house? Yes, because one is in some way better than the other. And that is how your blog should be, too.

So before you rush into launching your own blog, go through some of the existing blogs of your niche and write down all of the ways how you can be different from them. Being different in an already saturated market of blogging is a good thing.

2. Google went mobile-first

Did you know that Google now indexes websites mobile-first? …

Huh?

It means that Google will first look at how user-friendly your blog is on a mobile device. Then it will rank it as good or bad, and only then will look at how user-friendly your blog is on a desktop computer. A desktop version is still important for ranking, it’s just that a mobile device is now more important to Google in terms of ranking your blog as user-friendly or not.

So when you go on picking some really unnecessarily complicated theme for your blog, make sure that it feels comfortable on your phone or tablet.

You can read what Google has to say about it here.

3. Google Speed metrics

Another thing you must know before starting a blog in 2020 is that your blog loading time is now crucially important!

This is not 1999 anymore. Google expects your website to load with lightning speed! So what can you do about it?

Well, first of all, don’t do the mistake I did and don’t upload images that are like 500kb to 2mb large. This is an absolute killer for your blog’s speed. As a rule of thumb, have ALL of your images 50kb in size or smaller. Every image you get from somewhere, edit it in Photoshop, Mac image viewer, etc. to make it small. Unfortunately, this took quite a while for me to start implementing.

Secondly, get a theme that is light in weight. If you don’t know which ones are, just google around and see what people say. I know most people want to start with this nice theme that has all the fancy bells and whistles, but trust me, you don’t need any of that. The lighter your theme is, the better it is in the long run. People come to your blog for the content, after all – not for the theme.

Another thing that you could look into is your hosting provider. I use Bluehost and that is more than enough to start with.

You can go with WP Engine down the road, but that’s a bit more expensive, but it also makes your blog load A LOT faster.

If you wanna check out how fast your blog loads and what you could improve, go to PageSpeed Insights.

4. Google’s new algorithms and natural language

A lot of Google on this list of things you must know before starting a blog in 2020, right? Well, that’s just the reality of this business.

Google changes it’s algorithms a lot, almost on a daily basis, with some major updates about once a quarter. You need to be prepared for your traffic to increase and decrease for no apparent reason. The last two algorithm updates hit me so hard, I don’t even wanna talk about it.. my organic traffic fell by about 75%, and I sill haven’t been able to recover.. *******!!!!

And you know what is the worst part, Google won’t even say what can be fixed to recover!

This is what Google officially stated:

“We confirm broad core updates because they typically produce some widely notable effects. Some sites may note drops or gains during them. We know those with sites that experience drops will be looking for a fix, and we want to ensure they don’t try to fix the wrong things. Moreover, there might not be anything to fix at all.” – Google

On the other hand, it’s your job to do all that you can to really figure out what can be fixed to recover from the update. Is it the loading speed of your blog? Maybe. Maybe not.

After some careful research, I found a lot of interesting information about Google’s latest update called – “BERT“.

The whole point is that BERT will completely revolutionize how we – bloggers – do keyword research. No longer it will be so black and white. Now it’s more about using natural language. I figured that BERT (released October 21, 2019) might have something to do with me overusing certain keywords in my content… which is why my traffic fell.

Botify put it quite well regarding what all of this means for keyword research and tracking – “SEOs have historically relied on painstaking research to select keywords to track, based on a number of variables — keyword search volume, strategic products or topics, query competitiveness, and more. While this strategy of keyword research and tracking seems alluring on the surface, in reality, its returns often don’t justify the time and effort we put into it.”

So what does this mean for you and me? Well, you still can and should focus on using keywords in your articles in order to be found on Google, but you won’t need to any longer keep repeating the same keyword over and over to get noticed by Google. Now you need to write about your subject as naturally as possible, kind of like as if you were talking to a friend.

In any case, having a keyword research tool is still pretty much a must for any blogger in 2020 if you really want to make progress and not just be in the dark.

I can recommend two tools. If you wanna go professional right from the start, get SEMrush. It’s pricey, but advanced. SEMScoop, on the other hand, is a more straightforward and affordable keyword research tool (use “SAVE20LT” code to get a monthly or annual recurring subscription with 20% off lifetime).

Recommended: How to Make Money with a Blog for Beginners

5. Reliable hosting with an SSL certificate

Earlier I talked about having a fast-loading blog and the role of your hosting in it. Well, to repeat myself – a hosting provider matters.

I can only recommend Bluehost to start with, as that is what I use, and WP Engine for later, as that is what I will use.

Also, it’s really important to get an SSL certificate for your blog. …

Woah, what the hell is that?!

Relax, it’s that “s” at the end of the “https://” that you see in the website address bar up top. If you have an SSL certificate, you will have that prefix instead of just the typical “http://”.

So why does that matter? Well, it makes the connection to your blog secure. Unless you are saving passwords and collecting payments through your blog, it really doesn’t make a difference. Your reader couldn’t care less. But Google does. And we must obey what Google tells us to do in 2020.

With Bluehost, you will get a free SSL certificate. So as soon as you create your blog, make it an “https://” address (url) instead of “http://”. Check out some tutorials on YouTube on how to do it in case you get lost, or ask Bluehost’s customer care for help.

6. WordPress.org

Surprisingly, I still quite often hear people asking whether they should start a blog using some existing platfrom.. the answer is NO!

If you go with an existing platform, you will not have full control over how your blog looks and feels.

WordPress gives you full control over anything that you can possibly want from a website. You can literally do anything you want with it.

And no, having your own hosting and a domain name is not expensive. It will be around $40 a year, which should be something you can easily afford.

Almost forgot, it’s WordPress.ORG you want, not WordPress.COM. The .com version will be pretty much another existing platform.

7. Diversification to video

While you may not want to be on camera, I strongly suggest that you do it.

The world today has become lazy and doesn’t want to read. But your written blog is where all the money will be made. So in order to drive people to your blog, create a YouTube account, Facebook and Instagram to go with it.

You can use all of the social media channels I mentioned above to drive traffic back to your blog. On YouTube, you simply make videos, and Instagram and Facebook you will use to go live.

I know, I know, you probably hate this idea, but trust me, after some time passes, you will see just how beneficial it is for your blogging business to be on camera, too. You don’t have to do it straight away, but keep it in the back of your mind for the future.

Also, because social media has become so greedy today, making you pay for any good amount of traffic, I encourage you to find new platforms and to experiment there. Don’t just go with the traditional services – explore.

8. Laws online and data privacy

The eighth thing on the list of things you must remember before starting a blog in 2020 is internet laws.

Many people take the internet for granted, thinking you can do here pretty much whatever you want. That is definitely not the case.

Things here are getting more strict every single year, and I am sure 2020 will not be an exception. By the time you launch your blog, you should have an idea of what a privacy policy is, cookie policy, terms and conditions, GDPR, earnings disclosure, affiliate income disclosure, etc.

Don’t worry, you don’t need to implement them straight away, nor they are difficult to grasp, but just know that even blogging has some rules to it. I mean, even I don’t know what all of them mean, so relax. 😎Just keep in mind that blogging is also affected by some internet rules and laws that you shouldn’t break.

9. SEO

I talk a lot about what SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is here, so I won’t repeat myself.

But what I do want to emphasize is that you cannot turn away from SEO and think that it’s not important or that you don’t want to learn it because you think it’s too difficult (it’s not). No, every single blogger needs to understand SEO on at least a beginner’s level to be successful.

SEO is advancing just as fast as Google’s algorithms are, and that’s fast. This is exactly what I was referring to in points #2 and #4. So it’s not a matter of do learn or don’t, it’s a must.

Take your time understanding SEO if you are not familiar with it. As your blog grows, you will become savvier and more experienced with it, so no worries.

10. Enjoy the crap out of it!

The final point on the list of things you must remember before starting a blog in 2020 is – enjoy the crap out of it! … pardon my French.

The difference between stumbling blocks and stepping stones is how you use them.

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Blogging will have its ups and downs just like anything else. One day you will love it, the next day you will hate it. One day you will have the inspiration to continue, next day you won’t. Your motivation will grow, grow and grow, then all of a sudden it will drop again. One day you will make A LOT of money from your blog, then you’ll be penniless for a month. This is what blogging is like.

Download our FREE guide >>>7 SMART STRATEGIES TO GROW YOUR BLOG TRAFFIC FASTER!<<<

Whatever you do, if you have decided to start blogging, don’t give up. This takes time and it’s a quality over quantity thing. In the past, you could write crappy 300-word posts and rank well on Google. Now there is saturation. Now there is competition. Now it’s about quality.

Be a tiger, a lion, do more than everyone else, experiment more than everyone else, and.. don’t forget to enjoy the process more than everyone else.

Thank you for stopping by and good luck!

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