20 Simple Tips to Help You Create a Great Blog Design!

Blog design doesn’t have to be difficult or stressful- whatever level you’re at everyone’s able to add a little of their personality into their blog! Here are 20 simple tips to help you design your blog in a way that suits you (and if you’re still baffled hold on for tip number 20!).

1.       Keep it Simple

All good designs are simple, yet effective. Although you may be bustling with ideas, don’t over complicate things!

 2.       Be Consistent

You design should flow throughout you entire site, make sure it’s clear and consistent throughout.

 3.       Think About Your Personal Brand

If you haven’t already sat down and really thought about what your personal brand is- you should now because your blog design should reflect it!

 4.       Make Navigation Easy

Ease for the user is at the heart of every great blog design. There’s no point in having a beautiful website if no one can work out how to navigate it properly!

 5.       Ensure Your Social Media Links Are Clearly Visible

Making sure that those on your site can easily reach you on social media is a must.

 6.       Remember that White Space is Important

It’s incredibly important to have white space. I know of just a handful of blogs that have extremely colourful blogs and have managed to pull it off- but not many! Use fonts, headers and images to personalise your blog rather than an overcrowded background.

 7.       Make Sure You Love Your Header

The header of your blog is so integral to your branding you should focus lots of time on making it something you love!

 8.       Try to Learn the Very Basics of CSS and Coding

You can get by without it- but you’ll make things so much easier for yourself if you can at least understand a bit of what you’re looking at when it comes to code. Programmes like Code Academy are really great at teaching the basics of CSS- plus it’s totally free!

 9.       Make Sure Your Design Reflects Your Personality

The design aspect of your blog is a chance to show off your personality so people can see what you’re about even before they begin reading.

 10.   A Good Design Lets the Content Shine

I know you’ve all heard ‘it’s all about the content’ from me about 1 million times, but it really is. The content should always be in the forefront of your mind when you’re thinking over a redesign.

 11.   Image Size Matters

Keep it neat! Size your images to fit well with your posts!

 12.   Keep Your Sidebars Clean and Informative

Sidebars are the golden ticket- so treat them well. Don’t overcrowd them; just use them to display your best work, and guide people to your social media pages. The eye is drawn right of the page so sidebars on the right work best.

 13.   Choose a Font You Love

Your font is extremely important! Think about your style of writing and pick a font that compliments how you write- but makes sure it’s simple enough that you won’t get sick of it.

 14.   Poor Quality Photos Can Ruin a Great Blog Design

This one isn’t directly about the design, but it really is important. There is absolutely no point in you spending time on your design if you’re going to populate your blog with poor quality photos. Make sure your images match up to the standard of the rest of your blog!

 15.   Get an Outside Opinion

Blogs are really personal, so it’s easy for your judgement to become clouded however hard you try to be objective. Get others to look over your blog design for honest and constructive feedback on where improvements are needed!

 16.   Keep Your Colour Scheme Limited

3 key colours are usually more than enough, but you can go with more if you have a good idea of your blog’s brand. It might be worth asking a designed for advice if you can! You can also check out our bloggers guide to colour.

 17.   Use Google Analytics to Work Out Where the Most Popular Parts of Your Site Are

If you don’t already have Google Analytics on your blog- please get it soon! In terms of design, use the information to work our which parts of your site are getting the most traffic, and which parts are failing. You can use your design to highlight the stuff that’s already doing well, as well as trying to make the failing content easier to access.

 18.   Highlight Popular Content

You can do this in various ways; by putting it in your sidebar, having a slideshow of your latest content, or formatting your site in a magazine style so lots of articles can be displayed at once (this generally only works well if you’re updating your site daily).

 19.   Your Design Should Compliment Your Style of Writing

As with choosing your font, choosing your design should be a decision lead by your content. Think about your tone of voice and the topics you write about. Your design should sit well with the personality of your writing.

 20.   If You Can’t Do It Yourself- Buy One!

Do yourself a favour! If you find design stressful- buy one! There are loads of amazing designs out there, not to mention a tonne of budding designers. Do a shout out on twitter and you should find lots of advice out there and maybe even a freelance designer to hire!