How You Can Improve Your Blog Design within the NEXT 2 hours?

I recently redesigned my entire blog. Before the redesign, I read a lot of articles (really A LOT) and eBooks
on how to improve your blog design. After that, I settled on this design.

Still some people are saying that they don’t like this design. However,  in my view, it’s the best one based on
my research. I’ll continue to strive for a better one next time around.

I’m going to share the whole gist of what I learned from the dozens of publications I read on creating a much
better blog design.

The following are subjects that we’re going to discuss in detail.

  • The benefits of using a white background
  • Making content clear, readable and appealing
  • Clutter free and minimalist design
  • Contrast
  • A simple logo
  • Navigation
  • Short and sweet footer
  • That’s it!

White Background (works like a charm)

There’s a simple logic why a white background is better than any other color:

             It makes your blog look clean.

See, you’re reading this text on a white-black contrast, and tell me, isn’t it comfortable for you to read this?
What if I would have replaced this with a green-blue, or a purple-turquoise combination instead?

You probably would have left this site without thinking about it for a second! Thanks to the white background,
you decided to stay here 😉

Make Content Clear, Readable and APPEALING (this is why
readers come to you)

After all, this is why someone came to visit your blog, so you must focus on this area the most and optimize it
as much as you can.

Don’t use any distractions like Ads, Opt-ins, pop-ups, or any other annoying things in the content. Just make it
easy for the person to read.

Use clear fonts in the content area-fancy fonts are really hard to read, aren’t they? 😉

Furthermore, you need to keep the text size around 15px to 17px-no more than that for a professional look.

Now you have to make it appealing. Get your hands painted with CSS a bit. Make headings stand out from
the text. Add block quotes, notes, warnings, etc., to make your copy look APPEALING!

Clutter-Free and Minimalist Design! (this is a pro-tip)

You should really be careful with this part, as even the slightest mistake could result in a disaster!

People don’t like clutter and annotations-at least I don’t!

Make sure your blog doesn’t have any kind of flashy element (flash banners, headers, navigations, or anything)
or iFrames either. This is because these two things are the most hated by visitors and even search engines.
You may think that the more you decorate your blog, the better, but alas-you’re wrong! People like cool and
minimalist designs!

If you want a great example of this, then check out ZenHabits. You’ll see what I mean 🙂

Also, populate your sidebar with as little contents as possible. The only things you need to have in an ideal sidebar
are: an opt-in at the top; links to some great resources or great content written by you; a popular posts list and
a Facebook fan box-and that’s it. Nothing more is needed!

Add Contrast to Your Design

After some a/b tests, I came to the conclusion that people like designs with good contrasts, as this makes the
design more readable.

Suppose if what you usually read looked like this? How horrible would that be?:

The image tells you everything!
Adding contrast makes your design convert too!

A Simpler Logo

Your logo is the first step to branding.
Thus, it should not be cluttered. A simple logo works best!

If you head over to social triggers, you’ll notice that their logo is quite simple, but still very professional-
looking.

So why not apply this takeaway to your blog’s logo, and get a better blog design as well?

Simple, Easy Navigation

Every blogger out there must have a navigation in their blog. It may be in the sidebar, or at top, or in both
places!

Navigation is the most important factor when growing a loyal readership. They want access your quality
content easily-having to surf through dozens of pages won’t go down well!

The solution for this is to add or modify your navigation. Add helpful links in there, and also, some links to
categories, preferably!

Remember, make it simple and easy to use!

Short (but sweet) footer

It is not wise to add a lot of widgets, links, bios, etc., to the footer.

Make the footer short – and – sweet.

Add the traditional copyright line as per usual, and 1-2 more lines, if you’d like. But please, at least don’t include
any widgets in footer. It is really irritating!

The Bottom Line

So these are the things that can improve your blog design and get you better conversions, and hence, better
results.

Tell me what you think about these tips below. See you in comments!