I won’t agree with you if you tell me that your blog design has nothing to do with your traffic and how you make money online.
If I should show you two houses, one with a beautiful design and the other with a rough design and voluntarily ask you to choose one out of it as a gift (I wish I could), you’ll definitely go for the one with a beautiful design.
Let’s draw this back to the aspect of blogging.
Your blog design has a great role to play; it’s the first thing to consider before thinking of writing quality content, generating traffic or making money online.
Definitely it can affect your blog in a positive way and also in a negative way, a good design attracts visitors while a bad design bids them farewell.
What are the blog designs that can affect your blog and how can you avoid them?
1. Use a simple theme
Too much of everything is bad, there’s this saying that goes thus “one man’s food is another man’s poison”. You might optimize your theme in a way that will look good to you but do you know if it looks good to your readers?
I have an idea, why not ask friends or other bloggers you’ve created connections with to check out your blog and tell you their opinion about your design.
If you get a negative answer from three different bloggers then you must make a change to your blog design. Make your blog design simple and avoid over optimization. It’ll not only make your blog look good but will also welcome visitors to your blog.
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2. Navigation counts
You’re building an empty desert on your blog if readers find it difficult to navigate through your blog.
I’ve received few messages from bloggers contacting me to check their blog if it’s eligible for google adsense and to my surprise, most of the blogs have no navigation at all. I managed to type “/contact” after the blog URL in order to get to the contact page, I know that’s a no-brainer.
If a visitor visits your blog, will they find it easy to contact you or know more about you? Those pages are very essential, you also need to group your blog posts into categories; this will make it easy for readers to access your blog. You can make navigations easier by placing your pages at the header and at the footer of your blog, it really counts.
3. Font types and size
Of course, you want to make your blog beautiful and attractive by using fancy fonts.
Before doing this, the question you should ask yourself is; will my readers be able to read my blog content?
If yes, then you’re safe but if no, there are two things involved. It’s either they put on a google glass for easy readability or they won’t bother stressing their eyes thereby leaving your blog. The size and type of your font matters a lot. There are fancy fonts that can slow down a blog and of course, you know we’re all in a hurry. If I should visit your blog and find out that it has a lazy load, I won’t hesitate to leave your blog. So try as much as possible and optimize your fonts for your readers and not for yourself.
4. Using multiple colors
The eyes naturally gets attracted to anything colorful but too much of it is a distraction to the eyes. The maximum number and range of color you can use on your blog is around 4 – 6 major colors, it depends on the theme of your blog. If you’re using a red theme then the background of your navigation bar and sidebar title must be red, your blog background color can be different and your footer color can be different too, making it a total of 4 colors on your blog. This makes your color a uniform and professional. Avoid multiple colors on your blog; it’s nothing but a color riot.
Conclusion
Go back and do some architectural work on your blog, I’m sure you know how it looks like. Try to make some amendment if you fall on any of the categories mentioned above.
Remember, a bad blog design welcomes a high bounce rate and a high bounce rate can get your blog de-ranked.
I’m sure these tips are definitely incomplete; I would love to hear your view.
Have you previously fall into any of these categories? How did they affect your blog?
Hi Gilbert, What are your views on my Cydia site. (It is hosted via Blogger though, so a lot of customization is not possible)
Just checked, it’s great for a blogger platfrom, keep it up and have a wonderful week ahead.
really great information shared from your side…you proved from your post that theme design also makes effect to got the traffic….great concluded article…..thanks for sharing…
I think if you are just starting out you can pick a free and simple theme to work with. After you gain aroudn 10k visitors a month and start generating some income from your blog, you can go ahead and order a cusomt made, unique theme that will really impress your readers.
Meanwhile you can experiment with different elements on your blog and see what works and what doesn’t, so later you can have all of the good elements coded into your custom theme. I am actually doing this right now on my brand new blog and already have put together a sketch in paint of a preliminary theme I would like to have created once I can afford to pay a design firm. I am also saving some money on having a professional logo developed for my blog. I believe all of these investements will go a long way towards making my blog unique, visually appealing and interesting. In addition of course I try to include quality content on my blog to build a loyal audience.
Use two-three colours in blog theme with silent do not heart eyes (Do not use dark colours).
Font size and theme is responsible for blog speed.
Thank you for suggesting all tips.
Thanks for the reply Gilbert, I will remove infolinks and then try. I know that Asian blogs need to be 6 months old. But it is not clear that whether domain should be six month old or blog. My blog is running from January but I bought domain in June only. I think that may be the reason.
Hi,
Can you take a look at mine. I am not able to get Adsense approved What could the possible error?
Hi Arshdeep
You’re blog looks great and i don’t see any thing wrong with it. I’m not sure but i might remove the infolinks ad if i want to apply for adsense and the url of your privacy policy should just be domainname/privacy-policy.
Remember that it takes indian and other asian country 6 months before getting approval. Is your blog up to 6 months?
There is no six months old policy for Indian blogs. You can read my latest blog post about Adsense approval here:
visualtechno.in/2016/04/how-to-get-google-adsense-approval.html (hyperlink removed by moderator)
Adsense was approved for just a month old blog :)
Hi Gilbert,
I just loved your post! It is one of the great post I have seen in blog. :) Thank you so much for this type of post. I hope that you will write more this type of post in future. :)
Pritam, i also love your comment. Thanks for the compliment buddy and i hope you’re implementing the steps mentioned above.
Have a great week ahead buddy :)
Thanks again for your reply. :)
Can you please take a look in my blog. I’m new in blogging and I have created a blog. I want to add Adsense here but, I’m not getting approval from Adsense. Could you please check my blog and give me your important advice that why I’m not getting approval?
Thanks,
Pritam. :)
Hi Mr. Gilbert,
What is your observation for my blog? I have been changing it’s layout and design so many time. This one is my best pick so far; is it really worth keeping?
Hi Naim,
I checked out your blog and it’s simple but great. your theme looks alot like Blacklight theme of theme junkie.
I would advice you to add an about me page, you readers might need that you know?
It’s really a great post about blog design. It’s effective to attract readers via designing eye catching blog.
For WordPress, I always recommended to use Elegant Theme. :D Because their themes are clean, fresh and simple.
Thanks for your post. Really appreciate it.
Regards,
Mohammad Reaz
You’re welcome Reaz and of course, elegant theme is great especially if you’re a speed junkie like i am. I’m glad you love the post buddy
You’re right Joseph, great design matters a lot. But on the contrary, it’s nothing but low traffic or no followership at all. Good to see you here
great Post Gilbert,
Blog design really play a vital role in a blog’s future. Great designs will attract more readers and followership.
Yes website design is the key feature to every blog.I browse lot of websites every day and some of them have very cluttered design with full of ads and tough to navigate and read the main content.That’s why i will try to keep my blog always simple.
Raman, I come across websites with difficult navigations everyday. And believe me, I don’t normally hesitate to leave the blog. Blog design really matters a lot buddy. I’m sure you found this helpful
I agree with all the points mentioned in the article.
Apart from this content matters a lot.If its quality content and useful then it will definitely grow.
Hi Nikhil,
Good to see you on my side, quality content has a great effect but it be slightly unbalanced if the blog has a bad design. All the same, content is king because it can over-ride it all but that doesn’t mean we should focus on our blog design.
thanks for this awesome post, you have really shared light on why it is very important to have a great blog design, i really support this post and i will love to add that to have a good blog design is good and also to have a unique design show readers that you too are totally different from the blogger that use the same theme.
You can use the same theme but always try to customize your took totally different from others.
Nice post
You’re right bakare, I’m sure you’ve noticed all these probloggers getting their own designers and developers instead of buying a theme. An example is Ana hoffman of TGC.
You really got a good point there
Hi Gilbert!
Thanks for this post!!
I couldn’t agree more! Design is important, because beautiful design is… beau-ti-fuuul.
Ok, I have a confession to make: My blog is not WordPress. Are you still having a look and tell me my blog future? :)
Thanks for your time!
Hi Sab,
Your blogging platform doesn’t matter, the only thing that matters is if your site is user friendly.
Oh! I checked your blog’s future and it’s so bright that I had to use a rayban :)
Well, I checked out your blog and it’s perfect and professional. I won’t expect the question if I’ve see your blog before.
Are you using google analytics, your bounce rate is really gonna be low, the pictures on your blog are compelling. :)
I’m glad you love the post sab :)
Hi Amna,
You’re right, your blog header plays a great role too, this is the first thing visitors will see when they land on your blog. Experimenting until a perfect idea is achieved; thats also a good point.
I checked you blog and it’s friendly. I love the smiling cat at the header. You blog has a simple and light color, that’s great.
I also say your sidebar, they are very informative.
Thanks Gilbert i really appreciate it- your comment actually made me happy and content with my design .
Thank you:)
Keep up with the great post…xx
Hey Sam,
Nice post and thanks for the share. I really enjoyed reading this one. Well, I don’t own a blog yet but when I finally do I will be sure to make use of this lovely tips. The illustration was awesome and drove home the point.
Great post boss, keep it coming :)
Sam
Good to see you here namesake.
I’m glad you love this post and I’m definitely sure they’ll boost your blog when you lunch. Good luck on the blogging gig buddy.
Hey Gilbert, I’ll definitely work on this points on my blog. Thanks for sharing it with us.
You’re welcome Neulabs, good luck as you work on them and I hope they boost up your blog. See you around buddy.
Hi Gilbert….
I am agree with you
Blog Design is first thing for your blog……….
I rating the blog design 7/10
Good to see you here Prakash,
Of course, like I said above the blog design is the foundation. Traffic and money is what builds it up. I’m glad you love the article buddy.
Tips to always consider if the blog isn’t getting enough traffic or the traffic does not stick on the webpage to take a desired action.
Also to reduce the bounce rate, you may also add videos to your articles and this has helped me bring down the bounce rate to less than 0.19 by now for my online business blog.
Also one of the other easiest simple theme someone can use: The Studio Press themes, very easy to set and ideal navigation.
Good point Fernando,
I guess this is going to help the reders of ABT well, I’m not the video type of guy but there are other good ways to reduce bounce rate.
About the theme, you got it right. I’m currently using studio press theme on my blog.
Thanks so much for including my post here! I definitely appreciate it. :)
Hi Michel,
I’m glad to see you here, can you check out you comment to be sure of what you posted. I’m sure you made a mistake, I would love to hear your view on this post buddy.
Whenever I talk about design with my bro, he say give much time to design, instead give to functionalities. I saw a lot of blogs change the blog design once they get popular.
Hmm give time to functionalities, good point. But I might disagree with you on your second point.
Why not wear a nice cloth before becoming a celebrity? You get my point right? A blog don’t have to be popular before putting up a nice theme.
But when popular you if feel you don’t like the theme any more, then you can go into something more professional. What do you think Kamran?
I do love a simple theme, but the one I have is not very simple, but I really liked it so went with it anyways :)
Hi Gautham,
I checked your blog and there’s nothing wrong with it, I lso checked it on mobile, wow! I love its responsive design. Still can believe how you achieved 20k in 3 months +. You’ve gotten a new reader buddy (bookmarked). I’ll hop over anytime
Thanks gilbert :)
Hope to see you on my blog soon :)
I do agree with the idea about nice clean theme …but sometimes its difficult to show your personality and then keep everything simple…what i did with my blog was to create an interesting blog header- which shows my personality and add some spice to my blog. And then i try to keep the writing unique but easily readable.
It can be a bit overwhelming to find your balance but then keep experimenting and i think one will find what works best for them….
I would really appreaciate if you have a look at my blog and if you have some tips or feedback i would love to hear them ;)
Honestly…..Bring it to me…i can take it .Till then take care:)
asqgenerates.blogspot.com
Hi Amna,
You’re right, your blog header plays a great role too, this is the first thing visitors will see when they land on your blog. Experimenting until a perfect idea is achieved; thats also a good point.
I checked you blog and it’s friendly. I love the smiling cat at the header. You blog has a simple and light color, that’s great.
I also say your sidebar, they are very informative.
Good point Jennifer,
this is one of the mistake bloggers make, I’ve seen blogs with quality content but its design is totally not friendly.
Normally contacting a blogger is “/contact” by default, i guess i had to go through all the stress in other to help. I wouldn’t do that if i visited a blog without navigation.
First of all, this post has an excellent headline that made me read it . Bloggers spend most of their time writing content, building backlinks etc. but these are the small things that matter so much in building readers.
Thanks and keep sharing.
I’m glad this headline got you Mayank :).
They might be small little things but actually they are really big and this alone can hinder them from being a successful blogger.
Yeah I agree with you..
When I started blogging , I used a very fancy and colorful theme..
Then I just noticed other site and they were having a simple black background and white text on it.
And now reading your article I am damn sure , how should be the design of a blog !
Good to see you here Pritam, I did the same mistake iin my early days of blogging but thanks to my current theme. I’m gld you found this useful. Good luck as you beautify your blog.
It is so important that a blog’s design is visually appealing. People say, don’t judge a book by its cover, but we all know that we do that sometimes and the same is true with blogs. If you click to a blog and it looks cheap or overcrowded then you click away. If the blog doesn’t look good then there’s nothing enticing you to stay and read what the blogger has to say.
I can’t agree with you enough about having easy to find contact information. It is extremely frustrating when you want to contact a blogger and can’t easily find a way to do so!
Good point Jennifer,
this is one of the mistake bloggers make, I’ve seen blogs with quality content but its design is totally not friendly.
Normally contacting a blogger is “/contact” by default, i guess i had to go through all the stress in other to help. I wouldn’t do that if i visited a blog without navigation
You are absolutely right; your blog design must be as simple as possible; blog optimization does not mean you stuff every available widget with lot of rows and columns with stuffing of social media sharing option. It must be clear to tell the visitors what they need to do after reading the post.
Oh i got your point Muhammad,
That’s what i call over optimization which is not good. Most bloggers thinks it’s a perfect way of optimizing a blog post but they never knew they are making a big mistake.
Yes blog design is important. I personally hate visiting a blog that I am bombarded with ads everywhere. I know that people want to make money online, but nothing is more annoying than everywhere you look are ads.
I have elegant themes, but prefer to set up my site on Woo Themes. They have some great themes for blogs. I have never used any themes from Theme-Junkie.
As for blog font, what size do you recommend?
Hi Susan
haha! everybody wants to make money online you know? Most people don’t care.
Elegant theme it’s great, i also love it’s magazine style and as for font, a readable font should be between 13 – 16 pixels
Hi Gilbert!
Its pleasure to see your post.
Blog theme is also count to increasing traffic. If your blog theme time to load than visit will never stop your blog and revisit of the visitor is impossible..
You’re right Newton,
I wouldn’t return to a blog if i should notice that it has a lazy load and this increases bounce rate and of course lower traffic. I’m glad you love the post buddy
Really thankful for your great pleasure…
Best of luck and keep it up..
hmmm, nice article and captivating title.
I agree with everything here and that’s happening for the first time I have done that in a while for any article. Font size really matters, It wasn’t too long ago I decided to increase the font-size in my blog and everything has been just perfect.
Thanks for starting my week with this exciting article Gilbert.
Have a great day :)
I intentionally used the title, :) I’m good when it comes to that.
Great timing I guess, I increased my font sometime ago also and it really had a great effect.
I glad you love this post :)
I think your blog design must reflect your niche; for example if it is on showbiz so it must be so colorful and lively; if it is on sports it must show the passion and energy and if it is on blogging it must have techie impression to let others know how much techie you are. Otherwise all your points are really great
Yea, that’s a good point, niche hs a good role to play too. Color is a language on its own, I can’t believe I didn’t mention it, thanks for sharing it with ABT reders.
Hi Gilbert,
Well I don’t have pay close attention on web design though but since I am using my recent theme my click through rates on PPC ads is increase. So temporarily I can say that design has an unique effect on “make money from blog” future.
That’s good news okoto, I checked out your blog and it looks great, no defect at all. Keep it up buddy. :)
Thanks for checking my blog Gilbert
this is really very informative and important information .. i have attach my blog link I would be really thankful to you for your opinion about my blog… thanks
I want this kind of comment system in my blog plz let me learn how to get this comment form?
Hi Muhammad,
I checked out your blog and I must confess, it’s great. I love the way you arranged you pages above your header and categories below it too, nice footer also.
As for the comment form option, your blog is hosted on blogger and that’s how the comment form on blogger looks like, this doesn’t mean people can’t comment on it with their gravatar, blog or email, of course they can.
Try searching on google – how to use wordpress comment form on blogger.
You might see something helpful.
Hi Gilbert,
I totally agree with you. Blog design matter a lot in attracting visitor to your blog, engaging them on your blog and especially when you want to get AdSense. Easy navigation for your reader with simple design are requirements of AdSense but most of bloggers ignore this fact and when we talk about theme so I also preferred WordPress theme as they are better then bloggers themes.
That’s true Muhammad,
It really matters a lot, navigtion is also one this most bloggers outlook, thanks for mentioning them.
There’s nothing else than wordpress theme especially the premium ones and blogger is an adsense friendly blog, though it doesn’t support themes but templates only. Good to see you here buddy.
Hi Gilbert,
I would agree with you on all of the above points. the main reason is also a worthy content. I’ve seen top blogs with crap design but the content really worth their reader’s time.
Yes Sarah..!!
You are right that there are good sites with not so impressive theme but the thing is that ….
great content is staying at the heart of popularity no doubt, but the thing is they have built up their reputation over long time and they don’t only rely on organic traffic for visitors and they have their large Fan base who regularly visit their site…
But people who come through search engine are always in a hurry and likely leave in 10 seconds if they don’t find the theme good looking and impressive..
Just think of a great Pizza in a shitty packing…
Presentation way matters a lot!! :)
Read this article for a having an idea of user behavior over the internet..
You will get what Gilbert has to say…..
You’re right Sarah,
I’ve seen blogs like that too. Folks don’t take this serious, thinking that it all ends at generating traffic. Quality content backs up a blog regardless of its design (not all cases though), but think of this; a blog without a professional design with a low quality content? It’s definitely going to be an empty desert.
Yeah I do Agree with the fact ….
Blog design and them is one of the primary reason why People would like to stay on your Website ….
However I have written An amazing secret that not everyone knows ….
And it is a must know for all bloggers or website holder. Do read this post and you will put a thank you note for sure…!! :)
Good thing you’re on my side google boy :) your blog theme is actually the foundation of a blog, putting traffic aside now.
Thanks for sharing your blog post with me and of course ABT readers, I’ll definitely hop to your blog soon.