A Beginner’s Guide to Designing Your Blog

A blog – whether it be to accompany a business who sells products or services, or simply as a personal hobby – needs excellent design. For those who haven’t set up or designed a blog before, knowing where to start is not always obvious, which is where this beginner’s guide will help you on your way.

Importance of a blog

Over the past few years, it had become evident that more people are using blogs as a professional outlet when they were perhaps a traditionally more whimsical outpouring of thoughts and storytelling. Together with this rise of professional bloggers, big and small companies alike use blogs for several important reasons:

• Driving traffic

Uploading compelling information, stories, and articles to a blog drive traffic towards a company’s website. The blog gives a business’ social media pages a different dimension; rather than always have to Tweet solely about their products and services, they can link to blog posts about a broader range of topics such as business tips, interviews with business partners, and more.

As visitors click through to these blog posts, the company can then direct visitors to the money-making pages – contact forms and sales pages – through links and buttons.

• Informing and entertaining

In 2020, it is rarely enough to simply sell a product and service, and that be the end of operations. Companies in the modern era must inform and entertain their customers, improving customer satisfaction, and showing a level of personability and conversation that simply being an online retailer does not convey. For companies without a physical presence who cannot, for example, put on events and meet-and-greets, blogs are a fantastic way of doing this.

How to design it

Once you’ve set up your blog, decided on a niche, and hired a writer or two (or determined you are going to do it yourself), you need to design it. Aesthetics are incredibly crucial for keeping customers on your website, as a poorly designed page is more likely to make visitors leave quickly.

• Use experts

To get the best-looking website of any form, use experts such as ALT Agency who specialize in web design, sorting out your SEO, conversion rate, and mobile compatibility. There are many other UX consulting firms that can provide timely help.

• Keep it simple

Your blog should not be too complicated or too cluttered. Keep the content of your blog simple and match that with basic colors and large, crisp images. Complicating your blog makes it harder to read and less engaging, in turn switching off a visitor’s attention. Your blog should be garnished with stats, infographics, and links, but do not make these the basis around which you build it.

• Readability is key

The purpose of a blog is to be read. Text should be big enough that it doesn’t make those with bad eyesight leave immediately while optimizing your website for mobile – which accounts for over 44% of the market share – and tablet use means you’re more likely to be read by those traveling on their commute or sitting at home watching television.

Designing your blog is not rocket science, but it is an art that you need to get right. The simplest way of ensuring your blog is effective is to use professionals who will know how to make you stand out and, importantly, how to make your blog turn into profit.