Blogs are powerful platforms for content.
People love to read them because not only do they gain useful information, but they get to be a part of a community through the comments section.
It’s not all about the content and comments though, design is another factor that influences people’s love for blogs. The following will help you design a blog that will be successful and attract readers. Hopefully, this will spawn some creative inspiration on design.
Tips for the Layout
The layout needs to be tailored to people with short attention spans.
People only pay attention to one thing for about 8 seconds before they decide they want to continue reading or move on. You have that long to captivate your site’s visitors. This is why your layout should make your most popular blog posts visible. This will hopefully grab people before they move on.
You should have a sidebar on your site and it should be specifically on the right side. The main content should only take up about 60% of your design. Don’t think you’re being creative if you put your sidebar on the left because those who do decrease their chances of getting their blog read by 15% to 25%.
In addition to having snippets of your blog posts on the right side, make sure you have images for those. They are called thumbnail images. People love pretty things and they are attracted to them. This can increase your click through rate by 37%.
Last but not least, your site should be responsive. That means it is adaptable from a laptop/desktop computer to a mobile device.
What to Do for Your Blog Posts
People don’t want to squint when they read your posts. Make sure the font is no less than 11 px. This has shown in research to keep people engaged more.
Actually, the larger the font, the more popular blogs become. For example, sites like SearchEngineLand and Mashable have a 12 px, while ProBlogger has 14 px.
Headlines need to be even bigger. They should be at least 17 px, but no larger than 25 px. Again, the bigger you go, the better. ProBlogger and Mashable use 23-24px.
Font style matters too. You should always use Serif or Sans Serif for your styles. Smashing Magazine uses Verdana, and Mashable uses Lucida Grande. Arial and Georgia work best for headlines.
A light background and dark body text is the best tones to use. Don’t be afraid of white space either. Too much content on a page will only overwhelm people and make them want to get away from your site. Just the right amount of white space will keep your blog readers happy.
Social Sharing Made Easy
It’s important to make the sharing of your blog posts easy for people. The best type of social buttons are the scrolling ones. These have been known to increase social sharing by 27%. In addition, don’t list too many options for social networks. Three social networks are just enough, otherwise people are less likely to engage with the social sharing buttons.
Get Some Inspiration
Be sure to take a look at some successful WordPress websites with great design and see what they’re doing. Make sure you really dig though, design is all about the details, or lack there of.
Get Started on Your Blog’s Design
Now that you have the information you need to design a successful blog, get started. You will be starting your design on the right foot to maximize its effectiveness. Before you know it, you’ll have a great community with people who want to learn and buy from you.
Please, let us know what design works for your blog. Better yet, show us your great blog design in the comments below!