Learning how to design your blog is highly important. These tips will help you improve your blog design. Because it’s one of many factors that influence whether or not visitors stay on your site. So, you must learn how to do it the right way.
So you want to improve your blog design, right?
However, if you are not a designer or have no prior knowledge of web design, it might be difficult to know where to begin. Fortunately, you wouldn’t need any prior knowledge of using WordPress to build a well-designed site.
If you are using WordPress, which I believe you do, it becomes quite easy even for newbies to make a custom blog design from scratch.
The finest WordPress themes allow you to design your blog without needing to know how to code. Many of them also offer drag-and-drop visual page builders to help you customize your site. Despite the simplicity of how WordPress works, some newbie bloggers still manage to make mistakes when it comes to blog design.
But, trust me, I do understand it can be overwhelming for beginners. And, in most cases, they do not have the right guidance.
My first blog was a complete disaster.
No, seriously. It was a nightmare. The content was good enough, but the blog design, in retrospect, was hideous!
My first blog was created in Blogger, and I designed it myself.
Imagine a kid in a candy store when I say designed. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, and each new feature prompted an aha moment: I needed that widget or box on my blog. That was my initial impression.
I was confusing my readers and myself instead of improving my blog because I wanted it all. I wanted all of the widgets, colors, and gimmicks.
The result?
I was doing myself, my site, and my readers no favor by not being able to restrain myself and make a cohesive blog design.
Years have gone by, and I’ve come a long way from where I started.
I’m not suggesting that the blog design I have now is flawless. After all, the taste is and always will be personal and subjective.
But, all of my previous blog designs have taught me a few important things.
And, that’s what I’m going to share with you today because why start from the beginning when you can nail it from the start?
These blog design tips can help you avoid the mistakes that other new bloggers make and really make a good blog design.
Let’s get started.
1. Make Your Blog Pages Responsive
It’s official: the number of mobile-only users on the internet has now surpassed the number of desktop-only users. That simply means your website must be responsive in order to look good on all devices with different screen sizes.
If you’re planning to use WordPress (or another blogging platform), be sure the theme or template you choose is mobile-friendly.
Most of the best premium WordPress themes are mobile responsive.
The advantage of having a mobile-responsive site over having two versions of your site (mobile and non-mobile) is that you only have to manage one site. Additionally, it can be very time-consuming to maintain two separate versions of your blog (mobile and non-mobile), therefore responsiveness is the way to go.
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2. Design Your Blog Pages Properly
Some bloggers spend time designing their entire blog but neglect one of the most important parts: the actual blog page design.
The page that shows your blog posts, usually the homepage, needs to be properly set up and optimized. Doing this will both speed up your site and also make it look more attractive for your visitors.
Set up your blog page so you limit the number of blog posts that show up at a time. Also, set the options so that only excerpts of your posts are shown rather than the entire posts.
In WordPress, to change the options for your blog page go to Settings > Reading. You can then change the number of blog posts to show on the blog page as well as whether to shoe the entire post or an excerpt.
Doing this is one of the ways you can speed up your WordPress site.
Formatting the blog page will make your blog design more attractive overall and also make it easier for your users to navigate your site.
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3. Choose the Right WordPress Theme
You can save a lot of time if you pick the right WordPress theme for your blog.
A good theme can make all the difference for your site. Investing in a premium theme rather than a free theme can give you a head start.
Premium themes are professionally designed and come with features that can make designing your blog faster and easier.
For example, the Avada theme (number one best-selling theme on Themeforest with over 236,000 sales) has a drag-and-drop page builder as well as many layout options.
Themes are made to take care of the design aspect of your site for you. Take advantage of the theme and choose the right one for your blog.
There are also themes that are made for specific types of blogs such as:
- Themes for food blogs.
- Themes for photography blogs.
- Themes for portfolios.
If you know you want to focus on a specific blog topic, a theme designed specifically for that purpose can be useful.
USEFUL: 21 Best WordPress Themes for Blogging Websites.
4. Plan Out Your Color Scheme
Another mistake many beginner bloggers make is not properly planning out their color scheme. A blogger can’t just put a bunch of random colors together and expect them to look good. It needs to follow a color scheme with colors that work well together.
The 4 basic color schemes are:
- Monochromatic: Made up of different shades of the same color.
- Analogous: A scheme with three colors that are next to each other on a color wheel.
- Complimentary: Combine two colors on opposite sides of the color wheel.
- Triadic: Made up of 3 colors equally spaced on the color wheel.
Paletton is a useful online tool that lets you create and preview color schemes for creating a website. You can use it to test out color schemes to see which ones you like best.
Here are some examples of color schemes that can give you some ideas.
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5. Don’t Overuse Fonts
Just like colors, fonts must also be combined properly when designing a blog.
As a general rule for font pairing, aim for:
concord or contrast, but don’t conflict.
It also helps to know about the different types of fonts. Serif fonts have embellishments at the end while sans-serif fonts do not.
Sometimes a single font looks great by itself. If you are going to use multiple fonts, try to use only 2-3.
Choose one for your headings and one for your body paragraphs. You can use another for unique text like handwriting also.
6. Great Navigation
Proper navigation is essential for every blog and is one of the 5 keys to blog usability.
Your blog’s navigation will affect both your readers and also search engines.
If your site is hard to navigate for users, you increase the chance that they will leave your site. In fact, bad navigation is one of the top 3 reasons why people leave a website.
Good site structure is also important for SEO (search engine optimization).
It helps to plan out the structure of your site before you make it like this example from Yoast.com:
Have your most important pages as your main menu items like your blog, about page, contact, etc. Arrange your other pages accordingly.
READ: How to Promote Your Blog (15+ Amazing Ways)?
7. Keep it Uncluttered
Overcrowding your blog with widgets and other features can do more harm than good.
Sometimes, a little white space is good and will make your design more appealing.
Don’t be afraid to leave space on your site. Here are some examples to give you ideas.
It is also important to think of spacing in your blog posts.
Rather than writing a huge block of text, write in shorter sentences. This helps space your content out and make it easier for your viewers to read. Here are some helpful tips for writing sentences.
Also, include images in your blog posts. Not only do images space out your content, but they also generate more shares. In a study of over 100 million articles by BuzzSumo, the blog posts with at least one image got over 2 times the amount of shares:
Including space in your posts is an effective way to make your design more attractive and easier for your viewers to read.
8. Have a Professional Logo
Your logo is the visual representation of your brand and the first thing that visitors notice when they visit your blog. So, it’s critical to have it professionally designed.
If you are good with design, you can consider doing it yourself. There are plenty of free logo design tools available online. You can also use a program like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator to create a logo for your website.
If you don’t have a design program or don’t know how to use them, don’t worry. There are many blog resources online that can help you design your site.
Here are a few of them that you can try:
- DesignEvo
- Shopify Logo Maker
- GraphicSprings Logo Creator
- Logo Garden
- blog logo garden
You can also take a look at these logos for inspiration.
If you are not design-oriented you should consider hiring a professional to design your logo. 99designs is a great place to find designers for creating logos.
In any case, it’s important to make sure that your logo is visually appealing and represents your blog and brand effectively. And remember, a professional logo is one of the key ways to design a professional blog that attracts loyal readers.
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9. Optimize Social Share Buttons
Social share buttons can greatly increase your shares and traffic.
It’s also important to optimize the placement of your share buttons.
Include scrolling social media buttons and learn how to properly place buttons on your page.
It’s also important not to go overboard with social media buttons. Too many buttons on the page can crowd your design and make it look unappealing.
There are many plugins out there that let you easily add well-designed share buttons to your site.
Social share buttons are easy to set up. Remember to optimize them for the best appearance.
10. Avoid Annoying Ads
The last thing your visitors want is to be bombarded by obtrusive ads.
Too many ads on your site can annoy users and this is another one of the reasons people leave a website.
If you are going to have ads on your site, make them so they fit into your design nicely and don’t interfere with the user experience. Avoid ads that can be tedious like pop-ups or pop-unders.
Google has a page on best practices for ads that can give you ideas for good ad layouts:
Ads are one of the ways you can monetize your blog and are fine to have on your site. If you do choose to use them, make sure you are using them in a way that does not degrade the experience of your visitors.
Additional Blog Design Tips to Improve Your Blog Design Properly:
Consider your blog as a brand when designing it.
When people visit your site or come across one of your posts on social media, the first thing they’ll see is how you’ve designed your blog.
Your blog’s design serves as a shop window to the rest of the world.
And, you want it to look as welcoming as possible.
Also, attempt to come up with a design or concept that stands out (at least from your immediate competition) so that when your readers see your graphics on Pinterest (or any other social media platform for that matter), they’ll know which option to pick out of the many options.
They know you, they like you, and if they see your blog design attractive among a slew of other random sites, they’re likely to choose you.
Choose a Color Scheme
It’s critical to choose a color scheme for your blog.
You might believe that if you’re only going to use a standard black and white design, this step is irrelevant, but even deselection is a decision.
If you don’t want to make the same error I did when I first started out, choosing not to pick a color palette should be a deliberate decision. I didn’t choose a color palette myself. Instead, I just went with whatever I felt like at the time (and there were a lot of them), and it turned out to be something that even a kindergartener wouldn’t want to hang on his walls.
If you’re having trouble deciding on a color scheme, I recommend checking out coolors.co, which is a fantastic tool that’s also quite simple to use.
Start the generator and keep pressing the space key until you get a color you like. You can then lock it and continue working on your strategy till you’re pleased.
You can also type in hex values for colors you already know you like and see how they look in other combinations. Personally, I would choose between two and four shades, but you can do whatever you like as long as you stay consistent.
Select the Right Font the Right Way
Limit the number of fonts you are using on your blog.
If you use too many fonts on your blog, it can look cluttered.
Preferably, you should choose 3 fonts from the start and stick with them for as long as you run your blog. That’s what I believe is the best choice.
But, we all know that won’t happen, right?
There are simply too many amazing fonts out there, and just when you think you’ve discovered your favorites, someone brilliant comes along and produces a new, even better one, and you want to switch to the new font.
Choose a font that is easy to read for your body content (the text in your posts).
People will not want to read it if the font is too creative.
Save the creative fonts for your header or graphics (or, if you’re feeling brave, even your blog title), but make sure to use a regular font for your texts.
Limit the Number of Widgets
It’s possible that a cluttered sidebar will work in many situations.
But, it’s more likely that it won’t.
Many bloggers overlook the fact that their sidebar is an integral aspect of their overall blog design. They often forget to keep a clean sidebar and wind up with plenty of useless widgets, badges, and boxes.
Before adding anything to your sidebar, consider whether or not it would be beneficial to your readers. If you answered yes and believe it will benefit your blog readers, go ahead and add it to your sidebar. However, I personally prefer having a clean sidebar or no sidebar if possible to keep a clean and clear blog design.
Final Words
Your blog design is one of the most important factors in the success of your blog. Poor blog design can potentially scare off visitors affect how they perceive your site. The look of your blog also is also one of the four vital points for gaining the trust of your audience.
Using WordPress as your blog platform makes designing your blog easier, but there is still room for errors. Make sure you are aware of and follow these blog design tips to avoid the mistakes most beginners make.
With a well-designed blog, not only will your overall appearance be better, but your content will also be presented more effectively. Invest the time to create a stunning blog design and you will be setting your blog up for success.
In the end, I hope you enjoyed reading this article!
If you did, I’d appreciate it if you could pin it or share it in any way online.
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