Alexis Harrow
Design
First thoughts when landing on the homepage is that it looks welcoming and fitting with the brand. It gives the visitor a sense of what your site is about, without having to read anything. The overall layout is nice and doesn’t feel too busy. As you scroll down the page, it’s easy to keep track of what you’re looking at.
The ads and links to other things at the side (Instagram, Pinterest etc.) are easy to see and understand. There isn’t too much going on each page. Each page feels cohesive and makes the whole site feel professional and interesting. I also like that you have categories for your blogs. This makes it far easier for people to find what they’re looking for.
Content
Although running a beauty and lifestyle blog gives you a lots of scope for things to write about, you have stayed on-brand very well. Obviously a lot of your blog posts are about beauty products, trends and reviews. This is excellent, as obviously a large part of your audience will be interested in this, as this is why they’ve come to your site.
However, the other blogs that you have written about different topics still feel relevant to the overall brand. Your target market is people who are interested in beauty – probably a younger female audience mainly. So your other content is still targeted to that market which is great – it will keep people coming back even if you’re not writing specifically about beauty/make up.
There is some content which is obviously incredibly personal for you, and must have been hard to write. It is good that you have written this for many reasons. For you (I imagine that it must have been fairly therapeutic to get this out on paper), for your audience who can relate and get to know that person behind the blog. In today’s world with so many giant corporations which are faceless, people like to know who they’re reading/buying from/interacting with. Having some personal stories in there allows your audience to know you a little bit. It also gives people the chance to relate to you, and build a community through common situations.
There are other blog posts which also show off your personality and creativity which is refreshing in a world of huge brands. However, when you write a blog post, you may want to think about using more images.
Although you already use an image for the head of the blog, but it’s also worth considering using more. For SEO, images are a great way of getting noticed. Make sure the images are relevant and interesting. They can be personal images (pictures of you, or pictures that you’ve taken) or they can be more generic images. Search engines love images and will choose to show blogs with more image.
Thoughts for the Future
I’ve already mentioned about using images in your posts, which will help you with SEO. But other than that your content is great and feels relevant to your audience. Another thing you could consider doing would be incorporating videos on your blog. Videos are becoming more popular with SEO and audiences, but only do so if it’s relevant. Don’t add things just for the sake of adding things.
But overall, your site is great – it’s cohesive and easy to read and understand. It’s easy to find your way around which will likely keep people coming back. The content is good and easy to read. You also use several external links within each post which is good for SEO. Keep that up!