Many people use blogging application templates such as Blogger templates and WordPress themes to build their blogs. Since many other people are using the same templates and themes, you need to customize your design so as to ensure that your blog stands out. A good blog design should be a representation of your personality, as well as the specific subject of your blog.
The following are some things you need to consider when customizing your blog.
1. Top navigation, header and background
Your blog’s top navigation bar, header and background are very crucial aspects of your blog design. You need to ensure that your top navigation bar is arranged properly, and that the drop-downs, colors and roll-overs are clear. The images used in your blog header should be catchy and should be relevant to your blog’s theme. It would be advisable to have a search box appearing in the header area which can be accessed from any page. Finally, you need to ensure that the image or color of your blog’s background is in sync with the overall design.
2. Main content area
This is the part of your blog where your page content is displayed. Take time to adjust the formatting your block quotes, heading tag, paragraph size and font, numbered and bulleted lists, line height, as well as the underline, italics and bold formatting. In addition, you need to ensure that your link colors and images are formatted appropriately.
3. Post and page elements
You need to think of how you would like information concerning publication dates, tags and post authors to appear in your blog posts. For instance, would you like your post summaries to be followed by the words ‘click to read the full post’ or ‘read more’? This means that you will have to reconfigure the original coding. You also need to decide the number of posts you would want to appear on every page.
4. Comments
How would you want to see comments to appear on your blog? Will they have gravatars? Will the comments be threaded? These are some of the things you need to consider when formatting your blog design. In addition, you need to configure your comment form to show which fields are mandatory.
5. Footer
Your blog’s footer should include copyright information, as well as vital links such as the link to your sitemap or contact page. You could also include links to other great resources and your RSS feed updates.
6. Sidebar
When it comes to your blog’s sidebar, you need to consider style, colors and font used in the headings, as well as the width of the sidebar. You could include a wide range of information on the sidebar. For instance, you could have links to your most recent comments or links to your most popular posts. In addition, you could add social media widgets to encourage people to connect with you, or your blog’s RSS feed for subscription.
[tp lang=”en” only=”y”]
Guest article written by: Charles Mburugu has a great passion for sharing blogging and web development tips. He is currently writing for ideosity.com.
[/tp]
[tp not_in=”en”]
Guest article written by: Charles Mburugu has a great passion for sharing blogging and web development tips. He is currently writing for ideosity.com.
[/tp]
Hey, could you help me in SEO ?
Actually, you have different meta contents and different meta tags for keywords for each of your post pages.How is that possible with blogger ? Could you guide me in this.I am in your need please help me
Hi Ben,
That’s standard in WordPress I believe. I have no idea about Blogger. I wouldn’t worry too much though. Major search engines such as Google doesn’t use meta information for ranking anyway, because many years ago people would do keyword-stuffing in their meta keywords/description, so they kinda ruined it for everybody else. Now, it’s the actual content that matters – and incoming links from relevant sites.
yes these things make the design of a blog stand out of the crowd.
i also have implemented these tactics but not used footer things ye,i will surelly use that after reading this post
I definitely agree. This following blog design ideas are perfect.There are things that we want when it comes to designing our blog. By the way thanks a lot for sharing this to us.
We have been through many templates , some free, others premium, all in search for that amazing, relevant theme.
As it is already illustrated look into those areas. I would like to add, look into those areas with the perspective of what you want for you blog, and that should be in line with the future. You do not want to spend more after you realize you should add more features.
Think of your readers, your objectives and your future.
SO ask yourself what you want to have, what to blog about, what you need and not all the fancy stuff you think you should have and then make a selection from the many wonderful themes available.
Regards.
I definitely agree. This following blog design ideas are perfect.
Thanks.
I’m taking quite some time to design my blog to make it readers friendly. And i’m testing many free and premium templates for my blog. I agree with you, sir. Good post.