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Your Blog Might Need a Makeover

on February 24, 2015
by Brittany Ness

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Your Blog Might Need a Makeover

I love me a good blog, but I hate me a poorly designed blog. If I have to click around more than two times to find what I’m looking for then I’m out. If the design is a little too reminiscent of the 90’s then I’m going to question the relevance. The same is true for most readers. There are millions of fish in the sea, and it’s your job to make sure the reader chooses you.

If one of your goals is to work with brands and gain sponsorship, you definitely need to have a killer site. As I mentioned in a previous post, your brand has to complement their brand. A sleek, modern company isn’t going to partner with a blogger using clip art to style their site. Honing in on what your personal brand represents is essential to getting the readers and partnerships you’re after.

I’m sure you’ve heard the quote “good artists copy, great artists steal”. Well, I’m not saying you should rip off someone else’s site, but there’s a lot of value in perusing the internet and finding inspiration. Make a Pinterest board of your favorites! For me, I appreciate simple, clean sites:

Joy the Baker – ‘On Joy the Baker you’ll find sweet and savory seasonal recipes, a few cocktail recipes, and a sprinkling of the books I read, and the lipstick that I happen to be into.‘ (visit their site)

Joy the Baker

Pregnant Chicken – ‘Pecking away at the myths of pregnancy and keeping it sunny side up.‘ (visit their site)

Pregnant Chicken

Southern Plate – ‘Christy Jordan’s beloved recipes from her deep south heritage along with family favorite dishes that are easy on your budget.‘ (visit their site)

Southern Plate

Easy to search, easy to read, and while they may have ads, they’re not overly distracting. There’s obviously a similar vibe going on. It may not be your style, and that’s a-ok, but you can at least appreciate the easy navigation. They all have search bars and easy to use menu options. If I want to find out a little more about the author, I shouldn’t have to guess where to look.

Your Site’s Design

Unless you’re a triple threat unicorn (designer/developer/marketer), you probably need some help getting your site up to par. Thankfully, there are plenty of tools on the internet at your disposal. I know you probably put a lot of work into your site’s presentation, so your opinion will be biased but try to take an objective view. If you can’t do that, ask a friend for criticism. If your friend tells you that your site is embarrassing, hold onto them. True friends are hard to come by.

Themes. I don’t even pretend to be a designer. If I have to set someone up with a new blog, I install a paid theme. It saves everyone the embarrassment of my elementary photoshop/coding skills. You can find some free themes out there that aren’t bad, but it often takes some quality customizations to get a slick looking site.

Make the investment in a paid theme if you suffer from a case of ‘ugly site’ syndrome. Three sites you might want to check out for great paid themes are ThemeForest, Elegant Themes, and Creative Market. Most themes are easy to use and offer drag-and-drop features that make setup a breeze.

Logo/Header Image. Not every blog has or needs a logo, but if you do have one, it better be good. I stumbled upon a site the other day that had a decent overall site design, but the header was crazytown. It reminded me of a hoarder’s closet. It automatically gave off a weird message and detracted from the post’s content. If you’re interested in getting a logo designed by a professional, check out 99designs. Designers submit designs for your site, and you only pay if you like it.

Photos/Videos/Infographics. Since people spend a good chunk of their day consuming content, you have to make your site easy to digest and easy to share to avoid reader fatigue. I don’t care how sophisticated your readers are, everybody loves pictures. If they’re photos, make sure they’re big, clear, and have great lighting.

Posts with grainy, dark photos are worse than posts without photos. Videos are more personal and are a helpful medium when you want to connect or have a discussion with your readers. It’s always cool to see and hear the person/people behind the blog. Infographics are a great tool when you need to explain results or demonstrate a process. Visual learners will thank you.

Your Site Mechanics

It’s embarrassing to admit how ticked I was when some of my favorite blogs changed up their sites to include the ‘Read More’ button. You know the one. You’re gleefully making your way down a post when you have to slam on the brakes to “read more after the jump”. Well, as much as I hate it, I understand it. This elusive button can provide you with much needed analytics like exactly how many people are reading a specific post as well as additional page views. As it turns out, I haven’t stopped following any of the bloggers. I like the content, so I’ll click the button.

Determining which mechanics work best for your site will be a trial and error endeavor but definitely worthwhile. In my next post, I’ll discuss how to measure the success of your features. You have objectives and your readers have objectives. Finding a combination that works for everyone is where you hit the jackpot.

Pop-ups. Hands down the most annoying thing on the internet besides comment trolls. But again, they work for some sites. The closest I ever came to unfollowing one of my favorite bloggers was when they redesigned their site to pop an email subscribe box. I was already subscribed with Feedly, so it was really annoying to skip it every time. My suggestion on pop-ups is to use them very sparingly and only when you have to.

Popup Box

Menu/Buttons. A poorly designed menu is kind of like walking into someone else’s kitchen expecting the cups to be in one cabinet and then they’re not. Your visitors should know what to expect before they get there. As for buttons, make them clear, make them obvious, but don’t make them the bulk of your site. You should limit your site to two CTAs per page.

HTML/CSS. I know I said I’m a coding novice, but I do have some skills that have saved me a lot of time. If you’re running a website, I guarantee you’ll want to adjust something at some point. Instead of begging your tech savvy nephew to check into for you, take a coding class! Yes, it’s easier to get someone to make a quick fix, but believe me, the knowledge will pay off in efficiency. The business folks over here at Rafflecopter have used W3 Schools with great success. I took both the HTML and CSS courses through Codecademy, and it ended up being really enjoyable. Now I know things.

Site design and mechanics are essential pieces to building a respectable online presence. When you reduce friction for your users, they’re able to dive deeper into your content which is the ultimate goal. The book Don’t Make Me Think is a trusted source for creating memorable online experiences. It is definitely worth your time! At the end of the day it’s your site, so do what makes you happy. But if what makes you happy is readers and business development, then start optimizing.

Have you seen any sites with great design? Share the love and list them below!

Filed Under: Marketing

About the author

Brittany Ness

Brittany is the Product Support Specialist at Rafflecopter and a food blog connoisseur. Startups are her jam.

Follow @@brittanyness
  • borja

    Hi,

    Nice post. Yes, I am going to have to start with my HTML and Css… but I have to say that I am really dissapointed with the usability of Rafflecopter menus, and with the information provided. I can´t find any information on how to configure the titles of my theme. In fact, if you search by the term “theme” or “template” nothing is to be found.

    I know, this is not the place… I have written an email to support… it is just pure frustration. Not happy at all on my first day of my paid subscription.

    • rafflebritt

      So sorry for the frustration! We are in the process of improving this feature, and in the meantime, we’ve created a Knowledge Base article in response to your message: http://kb.rafflecopter.com/entries/79287919-Customize-Your-Giveaway-How-do-I-add-block-titling-to-my-widget-

      Thanks for getting in touch!

      • The Come Up Show

        hey Brit, I noticed when I hover over the images social media buttons show up what plugin is that?

        • Brittany Ness

          You can find it here: http://codecanyon.net/item/easy-social-share-buttons-for-wordpress/6394476

  • Lory@Emerald City Book Review

    This was very helpful! Just a note, under “Site Mechanics” you mean “slam on the the brakes” when you said “slam on the breaks.”

    • Dave Criswell

      Glad you like it Lory! And thanks for catching that – all fixed :)

      • The Come Up Show

        hey Dave, I noticed when I hover over the images social media buttons show up what plugin is that?

        • Greg @ Rafflecopter

          It’s a great plugin. Here you go: http://codecanyon.net/item/easy-social-share-buttons-for-wordpress/6394476

          • Jan

            I noticed those were for wordpress. I wonder if anyone has blogger ones they already know of?

  • Natasha Juniar Suhalim

    thanks a lot for the tips! I would be very thankful if you would like to check out my blog at http://www.natashajs.com and give some comments ^^

  • Karen

    Totally agree with you about pop ups! I have unfollowed favorite blogs because of too many pop ups and ads. Super annoying!

  • Jess @ Thefitspirit

    This is fantastic advice. My blog needs lots of work!

  • Catherine

    Thank you! Great article.

  • Melissa Moreno

    Great article…I think my blog is due for a make-over…time and money…Ugh!

  • Kimberly Curtis

    Raises hand very high!

  • Alicja Natalia Parks

    love the article, just redid my blog, added a HATED (well, by me, but works so much better, easier to browse, quicker overview, fast loading speed) READ MORE Button (self designed – oh so proud) and am trying to keep it clean and simple and it works – it could be more professional I guess, but I know my content is good, so I guess these both things work for me. I want a professional, only for me design one day, but can’t afford it right now, so until then I keep it simple and focus on high quality content.

  • Jan @ Tip Garden

    Thanks for the article. I have been agonizing over changing my header, and had been spending too much time trying to change it while keeping it basically the same way it was. After reading your article, I headed over to PicMonkey and just made a straightforward simple one. Maybe not my forever one, but it is clean, simple, straightforward, identifies what my blog is about and the bonus was it raised my above the fold information quite a bit. Thanks for the inspiration. I was just stuck and overthinking it!

  • TarynKaeWilson@WoolyMossRoots

    Yep, my blog could use a little makeover. (www.woolymossroots.com) Thankfully my sister is a graphic designer and we have some things in the works. Thanks for the great tips!!

  • Liz | Ellie And Addie

    I’m still working on the fine tuning of my blog, but I think this post was great to remind of what I do and don’t want in the future!

  • Krystal

    It’s funny, I hate pop ups too. And as I was looking at The Pregnant Chicken A POP UP POPPED UP!!! Ugh, lo and behold, I stopped reading that blog.

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  • Programming Duck

    As a programmer, I despise W3Schools. They are often misleading and in many cases inaccurate. Mozilla (the maker of Firefox) has great documentation. See here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML

    • Brittany Ness

      Hey! I will say W3Schools/Codecademy/Lynda all get mixed reviews from my developer friends. I’m not well acquainted with W3Schools, so I appreciate your comment. Also, thanks for the link to Mozilla!

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  • Icreativez

    Wow! It’s Really Amazing Artical for Web Designing
    https://www.icreativez.com/Website-Design-Service-by-Award-Winning-Web-Agency.aspx

  • zain leathers

    nice article

  • Muhammad Hasan

    Thanks for this wonderful article.
    https://daagenci.com

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