Over the last couple of years there has been an explosion of new blogs on the Internet, quite literally thousands every day. The main reason for this is that many business owners are starting to realise that blogging can help them achieve authority, build customer relationships and introduce their products and services. Other bloggers also explore the market for some extra income through affiliate links etc. Even if your blog is personal you may still want to see it bring a small cash injection every month. Whatever your reasons to blog, various factors have to be considered. One factor that many ignore is the design. Google is now including good coding and design into their algorithm so having a great design can really help improve your traffic.
Why It's so important
Some may say that design is not that important and what really matters is the content. Yes that's true but focusing on just one factor is dangerous. Let's face it, as a visitor to a website or blog the first thing you notice is the design, the ease of navigation, loading time, advertisement banners and thumbnail images. The number of bad designed websites that I visited over the years is staggering. Not only does this make me not want to read the articles I am also likely to leave very quickly and not come back.
One example of a bad designed website I happen to come across today had the following - small green text on a black background, flashy ads, pop-ups, slow loading time, and the sidebar seemed to have dropped below the post. The website actually has some decent information but it was not possible to read due to the size of text and distraction of flashy ad's and pop-ups. I would rather read a blog that has clear, light design with easy navigation - it's more professional isn't it.
But before you rush to your website to change anything let's start by having a clear idea of what direction you want your blog to go in. Great design needs to fin in with the content of the blog, appeal to the target audience and help best promote the product and services you are offering.
So let's look at some main design features to make your blog more appealing to your customers and followers.
Simplifying access and navigation
As I already mentioned, great design is not just about great pictures and striking colors. Your whole sites functionality depends on your design. This is everything from action button placement, to ease of navigation, quality of read and loading speeds. Because we live in a fast passed world and your customers need to find exactly what they are looking for with ease otherwise they will go elsewhere.
It can be quite frustrating searching a blog and not being able to find what you are looking for or eventually stumbling across it 25 minutes late. Therefore by providing your readers with ease of navigation will result in more happy users and may even boost your authority.
Creating the right banner
The first thing visitor's notice is the area above all the content called the banner. This is a good space to place your logo, blog title or social media profile links. Some banners are too high hence visitors need to scroll down to reach the post content. A good banner size should be between 150 and 200 pixels. There are also a number of softwares available to help you design the perfect banner. On that I recommend to my clients is SWFT, it's around 2.5 download MB and it will contains over 200 different effects and functions to assist you with a great banner design.
Choosing the right colors
As I described in the first example, using bright colors can be quite annoying. Some webmasters may thing that it helps draw attention however it doesn't and should be avoided if you want to look professional or even representative. This is a common issue a lot of newbies face. They create very colorful pages but if they could see it from eyes of their visitor they would know that the color scheme doesn't do any justice to their blog. Chose your colors wisely, check other blogs in your niche, ask friend or family for ideas, do some testing and ask some of your readers for feedback.
Avoiding Sidebar Clutter
Your sidebar is useful for navigation and sharing some information about your blog. Sometimes blogs have a couple of sidebars but usually just one. The sidebar is used to help user navigate through the site, but some webmasters tend to make their sidebars messy with overcrowded widgets, add-ons and ads. Take a look at your sidebar and ask yourself, will the used benefit from all these widgets? Another reason not to fill your sidebar with irrelevant stuff is because it will take focus away from content.
I hope these tips will benefit those of you who are starting in the world of blogging or want to change something about your current design. Avoiding these obvious mistakes will benefit you, your blog and sales in many ways. Having an edge over competition is what matters in this competitive world.
Aliosha Kasin is the founder of Melting Posts, a web magazine covering latest web trends, social media, and tech. He consults small and medium sized businesses on social media marketing and SEO efforts.
No comments:
Post a Comment