Why a Blog’s Design Is More Important Than You’d Think
When it comes to blogging, the most important thing is the content…right? Well actually, while the words you write are of course important they’re not the only thing people will be looking at when they click onto your blog. A nice layout and beautiful pictures will help to entice the reader, or at the very least won’t put them off, so they go elsewhere! Here’s why your blog’s design and the way it looks on the page is more important than you might think.
Makes You Look More Professional
A blog that’s been well designed and is nicely laid out will make you look more professional, and readers are more likely to take your content seriously. It makes sense, you might be extremely knowledgeable on your topic, but if your blog looks like it was designed by a five-year-old it does detract from what you’re saying.
A professional looking blog design is more likely to attract more sponsorship opportunities for paid work too. You want PRs to see that you haven’t just thrown together your site, and that it’s been properly thought out and planned which gives a good impression. PRs are going to be looking out for nice blogs, that look like the owner has worked hard and taken pride in them. So if you want those all important paid opportunities, this is definitely something to consider.
Makes an Impression
While you want your blog to appeal to others, it should also be personal to you. One way you can go about this is with your blog’s header. To bring some personality to the clean black and white page you could have an elegant header. This will make an impression, done well people will remember your blog. You could use an online banner maker and create one yourself, or even have a designer create something for you.
Attracts More Readers
When we spend so much time and effort researching, writing posts, taking photos and promoting, it’s fair to say that we want people to read our content. We put thoughts and ideas out there to connect with others and so they can read what we have to say. But with a badly designed blog, it doesn’t matter how great your writing is. It doesn’t matter how beautifully you have got your point across or anything else. Many people simply won’t read it because it doesn’t look appealing on the page. It might seem shallow but think about it. Have you ever clicked out of a website because it looked cluttered, spammy or the colors gave you a headache? If you want people to read what you’ve written, you need to appeal to the most number of people possible. This is generally a dark text on a light background (no swirly, script or fancy fonts for main text!) and a nicely laid out page. Pop-ups everywhere, flashing ads, misaligned sidebars all cheapen the look and are distracting.
Have you paid much attention to your blog design?
