How To Create A Blog Designed For Success

How To Create A Blog Designed For Success

The ultimate success of your blog will rely on many things; content, SEO, and topic popularity will all play a very important role, but it is your blog design that could ultimately make or break the deal for your visitors.
When designing a new blog there are certain things that every blog owner should consider and practice in order to grab and keep their visitor’s attention. The first impression of your site is extremely important and studies have shown that visitors will quickly click off a page within the first few seconds if they do not find it appealing to the eye.
Take your time when designing your blog and consider these tips.
Your First Duty Is To Engage In Drafting and Brainstorming
Before you create your blog or start looking for a template, do a little brainstorming. Draw it out on paper or list the main elements you want to include. Take time to visit many blogs and note what you like and don’t like both visually and content wise. What keeps your attention? What turns you off? Most of the times I move about with my writing materials and anytime an idea spring through my mind I just put them on paper. It helps a lot
You Must Give A Clear Message
Your visitor has to know immediately what your blog is about when they land on it. Be sure your title, categories, and media give a clear representation of the subject matter you are covering. This is very important.
Your Key Contents Must Be On Top
Keep important information at the top of the page. Your search box, RSS, Social Media links and About You blocks should all be clearly visible upon first glance and without any navigation. A good rule is to keep it within the first quarter of the page.
Make Your Title And Important Subject Easy to Scan Text
Make sure your titles and categories are easily scannable and provide a quick understanding of what type of subject matter will be available to the reader. If your titles are so obscure that the visitors cannot make heads or tails of your topic quickly, they will become frustrated. Use bullet points, bold headings, or numbers to help them quickly scan through your posts.
You Must Keep Your Design As Clean As Possible: Keep your design clean. Do not place everything so close together that no one can tell where one item ends and the other begin. Make sure there is an adequate amount of “white space” between articles, ads, and links. It is also good for you to know which best colour match your website or blog in addition to your contents, ads, links
Usability Is A MUST
You have to make your blog easy to navigate. Keep navigation bars in standard areas (top or left of the page) and keep them simple. Use only 4-6 navigation items as a rule. Your categories should be minimal and easy to understand, one word category names are best.
Remove Dead Links
You have to check your blog regularly to make sure dead links are removed or updated. Visitors expect all links to work and if they are constantly hitting on dead links they will become annoyed and leave. You can find sites online that will do this for you automatically. Just search for “LINK CHECKERS”.
Don’t Overdo Ads
There is nothing worse than a blog so littered with ads that you can’t even find the content. Ads do make us money on the blog, but in excess they will only get in the way. You want your content to be the focus and your ads to be the afterthought.
Creating a well designed blog is not that difficult if you give it some time and thought. It is important to remember that you are not unlike your visitors, so design a blog that you would like to visit and re-visit. Sometimes common sense is our best tool. Keep these tips in mind for your next blog and it is sure to be a hit.
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