There is something to be said for the power of the written word, but sometimes a picture, image, video, or other carefully-selected background design is worth a thousand words – at least when it comes to making your blog more visually appealing. If you look at what makes a blog successful, you’ll see a certain pattern emerging. It comes down to factors such as frequency of posts, age of the topics listed, and social media presence.
The first step in driving more traffic to your blog is to make your blog more visually appealing. Here are five ways you can achieve this goal:
1. Get Organized
The first way to make your blog more visually appealing is to get it organized. A poorly organized or downright chaotic blog creates a bad first impression. If your blog isn’t appealing, a reader isn’t going to stay on it very long or even read anything you write. If you don’t care enough to organize your blog, why should anybody bother to read it? Some ways to organize your blog include:
• Menus – Your menu should include your homepage, about page, and links to your blog posts by topic. If there’s a lot of content on your blog, consider multiple menus to further organize things. Try to keep menu items on a single line. It’s just easier to skim the topics that way.
• Headers – Your headers and subheads should clearly relate to your topics. Readers usually glace at headings before actually reading.
• Archives – Archive all old blog postings. This makes it easier for a new reader to go back and read your older posts. This also eliminates clutter and makes your new posts stand out better.
2. Use Customized Headers
Instead of just using bolded text or stock images, create custom headers to make your blog a bit more visual. Headers are the first thing most blog readers look at when browsing. Use PhotoShop or Windows Paint to make your headers unique. Keep in mind that your customized headers should also relate to your blog content. You can create the Da Vinci of headers, but if your readers have no idea what the heck your blog is about, you’ve already lost them. If your content changes over time, adjust your headers accordingly.
3. Use Colors, Pictures, Images, and Videos
The more visually appealing your blog is, the better. Avoid using a light text color on a dark background. Even readers with perfect eyesight will strain to read it. Unless you’re doing a Goth blog, you should avoid a completely dark color scheme. You want fonts and text sizes that make your blog as easy to read as possible. Add pictures, images, and videos next. You don’t have to use all three, but something other than plain text is a must. On the other hand, you want to show some restraint with what you add to your blog. Too many pictures, images, and videos can create a cluttered appearance.
4. Create Balance
You want your reader’s eyes to glide over the page and find points of interest without being drawn to certain areas of your blog. You can achieve this balance with the proper use of fonts, text size, colors, and position. You don’t want to overshadow other parts of your blog. Don’t throw too much into sidebars. While sidebars can be nice little additions to your blog, they shouldn’t overwhelm your readers by squishing your content into the center or to one side. Everything should be equal and have an overall balance. Let your readers decide where they want to go and what they want to reader on your blog.
5. Make Things Clear and Concise
Most readers aren’t going to want to read every single piece of content on your blog. Keep things as concise as possible. If you have a lot to say on a topic, spread it out over multiple blog posts. Don’t be afraid to leave plenty of white space or blank space on each blog page. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to fill up every single space on the page. Let your reader breathe and take in your content.
Once you have solid content, the next step is to create a blog that is as appealing to the eye as it is to the mind. A good color scheme is important in everything from text color to background color. If you don’t have an eye for color, there are plenty of color tools you can download that will show you good matches. Experiment and find the right balance of engaging content, use of images, photos, and videos, and text and foreground colors. Once you find that balance, you’ve got a successful blog.
Author Bio
Grace Kelly writes for Zintro, a marketplace of experts in various fields that helps connect investors, lawyers, analysts, entrepreneurs, and more. Find an expert by “hot” focus areas on Zintro.com and in various niches.
All these five points are very necessary to make a blog more appealing. Colours, images, videos all make blog more attractive. Thanks for such a wonderful post!
I think the best way to do that make responsive themes and add info-graphics in post it will attract reader towards blogs.
You are right, Rizwan. Responsive themes are great for all types of devices, include desktops, laptops and mobile gadgets. These type of themes will look really appealing on all screen sizes.
You have mentioned some ligit points. Organizing and balancing your posts is most important one. because you should know what your readers are looking for so publish them first to get their attention. and adding Quality images also attracts visiter attention
Color Combination is the most important thing. I think use of light colors for blog is the best practice. deep colors don’t look professional.
Blog design always matters and same with content. If designing and content both are upto the mark can enhance blog productivity.
One should never underestimate the effects of aesthetics. If you’re blog/site is appealing enough, it might get shared solely because of the design, no matter what the content is about. I mean, there are huge amounts of web devs eager to see nice web designs, and searching for them too.
Thanks for nice sharing I like to your post.
Readability is key. I can’t recall how many blogs I have clicked off of immediately because the text was a light color on a dark color background and too much trouble to try to read.
Right alanc. I also undergo some this types of blogs which not readable.
Good tips, Grace.
These days, there are so many blogs in the world and new ones are mushrooming virtually every second. Thus, in order to stand out from the crowd, we need to be different… and visually appealing. Your tips definitely helps. But I believe one other way which is much faster is to use a good WordPress theme. What do you think?