AD | I think we’re all a sucker for a cute layout, pretty graphics and a nice blog design. We’re well past the days of Piczo with flashing images, moving fonts and just general madness when it came to our website design and have learnt the importance of blog design. When you start a blog, picking your theme, graphics and fonts can be super exciting.
Heck, even 6 years in and I still get excited about changing up my font! You can also get a ton of Fonts Free here too, so as a new blogger, it’s good to know you don’t need to splash out loads of money on various things to mix up your blog design either.
So let’s take a look at the importance of blog design and some things you should definitely keep in mind when creating a blog and working on the design:
Picking the Appropriate Fonts
Readers will see more of your font/s than anything else on your blog. So you need to pick a readable font for both the title / headings and the main bulk of text. There are so many beautiful fonts out there and it can be tempting to chose the most swirly and fancy font looking font but for the sake of the importance of your blog design, have a shop around and ensure you choose some that are easy to read as well as attractive too!
Ease of the Reader Experience on Your Blog
Nobody wants to go onto a blog and end up feeling like they’ve clicked on an escape room game. For the sake of your readers, make sure their visit to your blog is an easy one. So avoid including a ton of pop ups, flashing images, things that fall from the sky and get in the way. If a reader has clicked onto your blog to read your amazing content, that’s what they want to do. So avoid making the task harder for them, as they’ll likely just click off.
Simplicity in the Design
Beauty is in simplicity, truly. But simplicity doesn’t have to mean boring either. When it comes to the importance of blog design, the more simple, the better. But don’t think that you can’t express yourself with simplicity too. For example, making the graphics on your blog match rather than random and scattered. And ensuring that your home page is easy to follow with everything right there in front of you.
Navigation Around Your Blog
Which leads me nicely on to this next point: Navigation. Similarly to the points about simplicity and ease, you don’t want to give your readers a hard time. So the navigation aspect of your blog is really important because it can potentially lead to a reader staying on your blog for longer or clicking off. Ways to improve navigation is to have a clear sidebar with all relevant information and a clear search bar at the top of your blog.
Accessibility for All
For the sake of blog design, this might not seem relevant but it totally is. Making sure your blog is as accessible as possible will increase your chances of more views and interaction. So making sure the load times are short and that you have a mobile friendly theme. Using alt texts on photos for those who are visually impaired. Having a translate option for those who English isn’t their language. And making sure it’s quick and easy to comment on your posts.
Your blog design and all elements that come with it; fonts, graphics, logos, brand colors really do play a big part in how your blog is perceived and interacted with. And we all want maximum interaction and engagement don’t we? Then over time, your choice of fonts and design can be so distinctive that people will know it’s you just from your design and graphics!
So if you’re thinking of creating a blog or have just created one then consider these points and try and incorporate them into the design of your blog! Do you have any other tips on the importance of blog design?
Keep the blog short, and concise. I hate reading blogs with 6-7 paragraphs long. What’s worse is that 1 paragraph of content can be summarized in one sentence.
Anyway, love your content~
Posts less than 300 words are awful for SEO purposes. Google prefers posts of 750 words or over 😌 If you don’t care about SEO then fair enough, just saying!
It’s so important to me that a blog looks nice and is easy to navigate around x
Oh me too!
Really fab tips! I hate pop ups so much and click straight off when there’s loads xx
I’ve had like 4 on blogs I’ve been on before!!! 😫
You always give such great blog advice!
Mollie | https://mollieclarke.co.uk
Thank you x
These points are so important. I never really thought about them until we had to build a website at work.
I’ve recently changed up my blog theme and it has made me so happy!
Love, Amie ❤
The Curvaceous Vegan
I love your blog theme! 😌
Great tips! it look me a long time to clean up my side bars!! HAHA
I don’t mind pop ups – and if they didn’t work, I would take it down. But it does! 🙂
Sidebars can get really messy! Pointless pop ups are useless!
Blog design is so important, it’s the first thing anyone notices x
http://www.ofbeautyandnothingness.co.uk
It sure is!
Hey lovely,
Loved reading your article.
So many good points on website design and layout.
It’s very important to be able to read it on both mobile and desktop versions.
Best,
Natalia k
That’s definitely important!
Great advice! I agree with all of this. A blog design is SO important. Sometimes, if a blog design is too all over the place, I’ll immediately exit out.
Krystianna @ Downright Dystopian
Me too! It really is THAT important.
Brilliant tips once again, love these x
Thank you 🙂
Great tips! I find choosing fonts so hard, I always end up trying about 50 before I choose. My blog is in desperate need of a makeover but I need to get a new theme sorted first x
Sophie
Me too! I’m SO picky about fonts!
Some really great advice!! I want to to do my blog soon xx
Thank you x
I’ve always loved the layout and design of your blog – thank you for sharing some of your tips, they’re extremely useful! The importance of using the correct readable font cannot be overlooked, as you say, the reader needs to be able to read the great content a blogger produces.
Ashley
https://lellalee.com
Awh thank you! My current theme is my favourite I’ve ever had. I’ve actually never been happy with it before!
This is great advice. There’s nothing worse than a blog/website that has too many pop ups, it’s definitely off putting! I’ll need to check out the fonts website at some point too!
Ashleigh | https://ashleighwrites.co.uk
Absolutely drives me mad!
I was not aware of this free font website! Nor was I aware of the top things to have on a side bar! Thank you for sharing this.
I love your layout! It’s so clean and easy to navigate. Honestly I think mine is a little bland, but I paid for it in a bundle so I might as well stick by it for now. I haven’t enough technically knowledge nor the motivation to switch it up right now. Maybe some day.
Thank you for sharing Jenny.
– Nyxie
I have absolutely NO technical knowledge so if I can do it, so can you haha!
I agree with all of these points – your blog design is such a vital role in getting people to read your blog. There’s been times when I’ve clicked on blogs and immediately clicked back off because the blog design either had too much going on or I couldn’t read anything due to bad choice of font.
Yep me too! People don’t realise it’s THAT important!
I agree with all of these points! I’ve been on some blogs & I couldn’t read the title of the posts b/c the font was so fancy. Also it’s so annoying when you visit a blog & their email subscription box pops up right away. How do I know I want to subscribe if I haven’t read a single post?
& there’s no problem with having a simple layout either since you can customize the font, colors, images, etc. to suit you!
Karalee
Tales of Belle
Simple layouts are so underrated!
If there is one thing that will put me off staying on a blog and reading content, it is pop-ups! I can also be put off if there is just too much going on and nothing really goes together. So these are great suggestions for people to keep in mind. 🙂
Sarah 🌺 || Boxnip || Latest Post
Definitely agree!
Great advice! I just came across a blog that was done in white font and the background was various shades of brown. Some of the white letters blended into the background making it difficult to read. It seemed like a lovely post but rather than struggle to read it I clicked off and decided not to follow. I also find any movement on the screen very distracting and frustrating when trying to read.
It’s such a shame when something so simple can put someone off reading your blog!
Yess such a fab idea for a post! As much as the quality of posts and the content people share is important, having a good blog design can be what keeps me reading sometimes. When pop ups are everywhere and the font isn’t very readable, it’s just not enjoyable! Less can definitely be more with blog designs sometimes xx
Tiffany x http://www.foodandotherloves.co.uk
Totally agree 🙂
Great post Jenny!
Design is so important when it comes to wanting people to stick around on your blog 😊 I’m forever changing my mind about how I want mine to look but I have to stop myself from constantly redesigning it all!
Love Lozza xo
http://girlygabble.com
Haha I agree! I always hate my design after a while!
Some great tips and advice here. When I first started my blog I didn’t realise that I could even change the fonts so being able to do that now and be aware of what fonts are better and easier to read is something I definitely think about. I haven’t thought about Alt-text photos though! This is something I definitely need to look into now!
Adding alt text to your photos is really simple and makes your blog more accessible so win win!
My biggest struggle are the fonts and I know it’s crazy but since a majority of my posts are bilingual, it’s so hard to pick up a font that looks good to me, is easy to read and can display the special characters of my language xD
Also I agree so much on the simplicity. It happens so often to go on a blog and not even understand where one post starts and where it ends, so many pictures, colors everywhere, nothing is aligned or matching. It makes me lose interest in a few seconds and it’s sad because some content may be awesome but if I can’t read it…. it’s pointless.
One thing I found really helpful in keeping my blog looking nice, is going back to old posts and checking if they still match my current theme, and if any links still work! I’ve seen it increase my DA score but will definitely apply some of your tips too!
Ellyn x | Life Of A Beauty Nerd
I’m currently going through all my broken links for DA and SEO purposes but I have over a thousand posts so there’s no way I could go back and check every single post to make sure if fits in with my theme!
Yaaay! I love what you’ve said about pop-ups because they are my number one put off when I read a blog! Like you so accurately said – I’ve clicked to read the content and too much stuff getting in the way is really frustrating!
Agreed! One pop up is okay but 3 or 4 is just ridiculous!