Blog Layout and Design Matters

When starting out a blog, after the necessary set-up, design comes in. By blog design and layout we mean to describe the colors, the color schemes or combination, number of columns, size of font, images displayed, widgets displayed, arrangement and much more. When all of these are incorporated to become one, we usually call it a blog template or pre-developed page layout (varies from person to person).

This blog design may leave out good impressions for those who could appreciate art forms, but some might think the design is too confusing and the background an eye sore. Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/belive/

If you don't intend to keep a blog for personal uses and intend it to gain some non-hefty amount of income for the least, then blog design and layout must be one of your concerns. How does it affect your blog? A blog's design has its own contribution to the improvement of the blog's traffic. Usually, this does not happen directly. It affects in small yet noticeable ways that once you recognize it, you will be layout-conscious; and worst-case scenario, you will be scavenging for the best looking layout in the web.

Explanation: Humans are visually-inclined. According to several researches, humans prefer to see pictures/graphics/visuals than to read text. When we relate it to blogs and blog traffic, this means that what visitors see when your page is loaded in the browser are the images and colors first before the actual text or posts. The mind usually imprints the overall blog design at first look and then gives out its first impressions. In blogging, first impression matters. An ugly-looking blog would leave out negative impressions that would probably stick to the viewer's memory (Humans tend to remember negative things more than positive ones). How does this really relate to traffic? If people would be awed by how your blog looks and they remember it, they will come back more often to see it, its changes and improvement. Of course content is included. This phenomena will build a loyal reader in return. More loyal readers means a lower chance of getting a low traffic in a day or positively, more quality traffic sources.

Always remember not to neglect your blog's design. Try out a variety of blog designs for a specific period of time and do some basic experiment. Study the traffic during the duration of a specific blog layout and compare it with how the other layouts did. This is if when you are really determined to experiment on it. Experimenting about this is fine but changing blog layouts every now and then could cause negative effects too (will be discussed in a separate post). Again, it all ends up on the blogger to decide and control. But a decisive and in-control blogger must also know that his blog's life also depends on its readers and its readers' reactions and comments.

This blog design is basically clean and practices minimalism. The colors used are not striking. Basic it may be, all colors are blended well. Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/giselej/

In this topic, are subtopics too as blog design incorporates a lot of things that appear on the blog. Tackling of specific parts and issues about blog design will be discussed in different posts so everything will not be mixed up and be discussed thoroughly.

Tech Tags: layout design blog blog+layout blog+design

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