The best blog design is one that is easy to navigate, easy to use and easy to read. A fancy blog design may look great but if the reader finds navigation difficult or the text hard to read, all that work will have gone to waste.
Some designs only need a minor tweak. I was asked by a friend to look at his blog recently to find out why he had such a high bounce rate (over 90%). The first thing that struck me was the header image, it consumed the whole opening screen. For a lot of visitors, they land on that page and don’t know what to do next. The opening graphic, being so large, also took a while to load.
The quick fix was to reduce the graphic in height by 50%. This allowed the page to load faster and of course brought the content and menus above the fold. His bounce rate is now down to around 70% – still high, but much better that the 90%. He was fortunate, his graphic allowed for 50% reduction in height without degrading the overall effect. It is rare to have an easy fix like that.
I see a lot of blogs that are far to complicated. A simple design is all that is needed. If you are looking to deliver information then that information should be your primary focus and the blog design should focus on that as well.
For blogs that are intended to produce income, your design should focus on leading your readers to your income streams. Leave the fancy designs to the blogs that are created for fun and pleasure.
Blog design – keep it simple and keep it focused on what the blog is there for.
