Having good quality written content isn’t all the matter when blogging – your blog also needs to look good if you want to draw people in. Here are some ways in which you can create a visual impact, helping your blog to look more professional and to help make it easier to read.
7 Ways To Visually Improve Your Blog
1. Break away from generic themes
If you’re using Blogger or WordPress, consider experimenting with different themes. Using a preset theme without making any changes to the template could make your blog look amateurish and derivative. By playing around with the settings, you can give your blog its own distinct look. It’s also possible to download new themes online to give your blog an even more professional feel.
Trust me when I say that you don’t have to pay big bucks to get a nice looking theme. In fact, the theme I use for this blog is free. I have spent some time making adjustments to make it look just the way I want it. So don’t be afraid to switch things up to find the exact style and feel you are looking for to make your blog stand out.
2. Use appropriate fonts
Fonts can help to set the tone of your blog, so make sure you’re not using an inappropriate font. If you often blog about serious topics, you don’t want to be using anything too cartoonish – instead consider serif fonts such as Times New Roman and Georgia. If your blog has a more light-hearted feel, a softer font without serifs might be better suited like Arial or Futura (just make sure to avoid Comic Sans!).
Once you choose your font, be sure to be consistent. Use it for designing Pinterest pins as well as in your newsletters and any other content you create.
3. Make your content easy to read
It used to be that all blogs were using a 10 or 12 pt size font. But now that the vast majority of users are finding and reading your content on mobile, you should consider increasing your font size to 16 or 18 pt. Not only will your blog be easier to read and digest, comprehension will improve as well. Hopefully that translates to lower bounce rates for you.
Be aware that letter size can be different between fonts as well. Once you choose your font style from the step above, check how your blog looks on different mobile devices and adjust accordingly. Believe me, us older folk appreciate larger font!
4. Stay away from colour overload
I know that when you start your blog or you are looking at changing your theme, you can get caught up in all the different things you can do to make your blog look unique. Always keep in mind the reader experience. A black background with yellow text may look awesome to you but most readers hate it.
Avoid using coloured backgrounds and coloured text. A plain white background with black or dark grey text may seem boring to you but it is far easier to read. Especially considering the amount of time readers spend online now. Over-use of colours leads to eye fatigue. You do not want to cause that. You want your readers engaged and coming back for more.
5. Use high quality images
High quality images will also help to give your blog a professional feel. You should avoid stretching images beyond their resolution or shrinking images until they distort as this will make your blog look sloppy.
This source link can offer tips on editing your images – this could help you to crop and adjust images correctly. There are many sites where you can download high quality images for free (try to avoid copyrighted images, otherwise you’ll have lots of blank images on your blog). If you’re using your own photos, make sure that your photography skills are decent enough.
6. Show post previews
If your posts are generally very lengthy, consider only showing previews of each post. When scrolling through your blog, readers will be more easily able to navigate between posts. You can also consider displaying specific posts in the sidebar or at the top of your blog – these could be your most popular posts or your latest posts. Make sure that there’s a ‘read more’ link beneath each post so that readers can easily expand these posts if they need to.
I also suggest keeping the number of previewed posts on each page to 5 or 7 at the maximum. This way readers don’t have to scroll endlessly to reach your footer or sidebar. This is especially important on mobile as the footer and sidebar are shown after your main content.
7. Create a blog logo
Giving your blog its own logo can help to make your blog feel more like a brand. You can get help designing a logo online – there are free tools that you can use or you may prefer to pay a designer a couple dollars to produce something cool and individual. Logos are often displayed at the top of a blog in the left hand corner. You can even go one step further and set your logo as a favicon.
Small visual changes can have a big impact on how your blog is received and if it is shared. Taking the time to give your readers the best experience will go a long way to helping you increase your pageviews and create a community of raving fans. You only have a few seconds to grab someone’s attention online. Make sure you do everything you can to hook them in and make them stay to read your content you spend so much time on.
7 comments
Generic themes can un-inspire quickly. All good points here.
Ryan
As always great information Elena! Thank you!!!
Do you have any suggestions on who to use for a logo design, Elena? I agree with your ideas about color and I can’t read blogs that have colored backgrounds with contrasting print. It drives me crazy!
Try Etsy. Lots of premade ones they will customize.
Great advice on all point Elena. We’ve tried to implement all of these over the past few years to get our blog the way we want it to be. Its always a shame when you see a blog with poor quality photos or too much colour going on. Makes you ignore the content.
Very true. I remember when I first started. I loved colour and all the different options. What a disaster!