In order to build something upon it, you should lay a firm foundation. Apart from what kind of content you offer your audience, you should also pay careful attention to what we call ‘visual branding’ of a blog. A well thought-out blog design can instantly create a buzz in the target market.
Surprisingly enough, not many people devote the time and energy that designing a great blog requires. If you want your blog to immediately attract attention, the first thing you need to do is come up with a unique design concept.
Given below are some key tips that you can use to create a great blog design.
#1. Understand the Requirements of Target Market
Before you choose a specific layout or design of your blog, you should clearly understand who your target audience is. For example, a fashion blog will have a different design as compared to a healthcare blog or a career blog.
Therefore, it’s important to know your target market before you sketch the design of your blog. A great design is always targeted at inspiring the target audience. When you know who you want to target, you can easily decide a matching color scheme, background, header, footer etc.
#2. Leave Adequate White Space
A great blog must be able to ‘breathe’ easily. That means, you need to leave enough white space on your blog. Plenty of white space in a blog design makes visitors feel comfortable.
A blog uses various design elements. It is vital to ensure that each element of your blog looks clean and easy to the eye. The concept of ‘whitespace’ doesn’t always refer to white color. Whichever color scheme you use on your blog, it should have abundant breathing space.
#3. Don’t Go Crazy with Widgets & Plugins
Excessive use of widgets and plugins can easily make your blog look cluttered to the visitor. Most of the newbies make the mistake of using too many plugins even when they don’t necessarily require all of them.
Yes, plugins solve a lot of problems. Bu the minus side of using too many widgets or plugins is that it also hampers the speedy loading of your blog. In order to make your blog design look cleaner and load quickly, you should keep a limit to the use of widgets and plugins on your blog.
#4. Declutter the Sidebar
One of the most important tips to tweak the design of your blog is to review the elements of your sidebar. Scrutinize the sidebar of your blog to find out what you really need there and what you can do without.
While designing the sidebar, you should keep the most important stuff at the top. This should be done in accordance with the purpose of your blog.
#5. Get Feedback from Outside
Once you have come up with an initial blog design, a good idea is to connect with your family and friends and ask for their feedback. Getting an outsider’s view on the design of your blog can prove to be an eye-opener.
Choose a couple of people who you think can give you some good pieces of advice on how the design of your blog appears to them. Find out what catches their attention most. Ask them what they would like to be redesigned. This is like a test. It can really help you refine the blog design to match visitor requirements.
What, according to you, is the most important aspect of a great blog design? Do feel free to share your views in the comment section below.