Majority of readers fail to notice the appearance of websites beyond a point.
But when looked closely, all those blogs you follow devotedly are designed very carefully and with great precision.
From color selections to font-size, everything is picked thoughtfully, and are often based on data.
(Blue is one of the most favorite colors of top brands. And thereās a good reason behind!)
Design Isnāt Secondary To Content
Admittedly, content is the king. But that king is incomplete without a throne, i.e. a beautiful design.
So if you have a blog, it is imperative that its design is decent, if not perfect. Because, directly and indirectly, itās going to affect your blogging revenue.
#1 Poor Blog Design Affects SEO
Website speed, structure, and responsiveness are the three major SEO factors.
Additionally, there are many other SEO factors that bad design totally screws up with, like Time Spent on Website, Bounce Rate, Duplicate Content (they might be missing canonical tags), and Schema Markup.
Also Read: 17 Free On-Page SEO Tools
#2 Poor Blog Design Affects Email List-Building
Placing subscription form at the right place on the blog can have you more number of subscribers. Similarly, pushing the form to the readers at the right time (usually at the end of the article) can grow your mailing list significantly.
Wonder why many of top bloggers place their subscription box at the top of the sidebar?
All these are only possible if your blog is well designed to incorporate your visitor-to-subscriber conversion strategy effectively.
#3 Poor Blog Design Affects Your Ad Revenue
Much like signup forms, Ad units perform much better in a certain place on the website than others. Where you place your ad affects its impression and Click-Through Rate (CTR); and hence your revenue.
So does blog design matter?
In short, YES, IT DOES.
Hold onā¦
Are you now thinking āhow much does blog design cost?ā
It can cost you as much as you wantāor it can cost you nothing.
There exist many premium and free templates out in the market, regardless of the blogging platform you are using. You can hire a professional designer or you can follow the good olā āDo It Yourself Blog Designā tips like most of us.
Here are 11 simple blog design tips to help you get started with:
11 Do It Yourself Blog Design Tips
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| Do It Yourself Blog Design Tips |
- Know the kind of features and functionality you want on your blog.
- Pick the right theme/template from the right resource. Donāt download or buy it from shady-looking website.
- Make sure the theme/template is simple, lightweight, content-centric and responsive. Check its speed HERE.
- Test it thoroughly before implementing on your blog.
- Avoid those bold, colorful, obnoxious themes, like this one. They are a pain in eyes.
- Donāt use unnecessary plugins or templates. Go minimalist here.
- Make sure the fonts are big, with good spacing and height. (Read an old piece on ProBlogger for more on ideal fonts.)
- For high conversion, place your subscription box at the top of the sidebar, at the top of your blog and after every post. Hereās a nice post on this topic on Social Trigger.
- Make sure your blog isnāt overcrowded and have sufficient whitespaces.
- Nothing can be worse if your blog isnāt properly functional and readable on hand-held devices. Check its mobile-compatibility here.
- Make the navigation easy. Meaning, ensure that readers can find the categories/tags easily and can go from one page to another without wondering āhow toā.
Thatās about it for the starters.
Also Read: 5 Website Design Trends You Should Not Follow
If you have any question, letās talk on Twitter.
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