Most popular blogs have a number of blog design elements
in common. Read on to learn about ten of the most important blog
design elements your blog must have in order to have a chance at
success!
1. Readable Text
Your blog
design must be easy to read. That means the fonts you choose should be
large enough to be read on high resolution monitors, and they should be
simple enough to be legible. In other words, don't choose a highly
stylized font. Stick with Georgia or Verdana or another Web-friendly
font. Also, make sure the text on your blog is easy to scan quickly.
2. Inviting Colors
Don't select colors in
your blog design that are blinding or so light that it's difficult for
visitors to read the text or even look at your blog for more than a few
seconds. The easiest colors for people to read online are light
backgrounds (white is best) with dark text and images (such as black,
dark blue, dark green, and so on).
3. Easy Navigation
Make
it easy for visitors to find your content. Don't hinder their visit by
using interstitial ads or splash pages. In other words, don't give them a
chance to click away from your blog when they land on it.
4. Short Pages
People
don't like to scroll. Keep your blog pages short by configuring your
blog settings to show no more than 10 blog posts on each page of your
blog (5-7 is best). If your blog posts are long, consider using the HTML more tag to split your post into two parts so only the first part
appears on the main page of your blog and the rest is available for
viewing when a visitor clicks the provided link (often called a 'jump').
5. Search Function
Make
it easy for visitors to find related content, specific content, and
archived content on your blog by including a search box in your blog's
sidebar or header.
6. Your Bio or Profile
While
there are some successful blogs written by anonymous authors, most are
written by a person or team who makes it very clear why they are the
person or group to write about their blog subjects. Show the world who
you are and why you're qualified to write your blog by including a
comprehensive biography. The best bloggers build strong relationships
with their readers, and your bio is the first place to make yourself
seem human and personable.
7. Contact Form and Social Links
The
best bloggers build relationships with their readers, and part of that
is making it easy for your readers to connect with you, share
information, and get to know you. Make it easy for them to communicate
with you by providing a contact form or a link to email you, so you can
talk off of your blog.
8. Useful Footer
Don't forget your footer
when you create your blog. When people can't find what they're looking
for on a Web site, they often scroll to the footer to find site-wide
links such as a contact link, site map link, and so on. Take some time
to include useful links and information in your blog's footer, and make
sure the footer appears at the bottom of all of your blog pages.
9. Subscription Links
Don't forget to include a link and button above the fold on your blog for people to subscribe to your blog's RSS
feed. Subscribers often turn into your most loyal readers. Make it easy
for everyone who visits your blog to subscribe.
10. Silence
As
tempting as it might be, don't use music on your blog. If you must
include music, allow visitors to turn it on at their discretion. Do not
have music automatically play when someone visits your blog. While music
can enhance a blog, it is more often thought of negatively.
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