Blog Design Tips

1. Research web design best practices before making changes. However, you don’t have to follow everything others are doing. Choose what is best for your blog, brand, readers, monetization strategies and goals.
2. Prioritize the user experience: easy-to-read fonts and sizes, white space, imagery, simple navigation, internal links, and content-focused instead of ad-focused. If you’re going to use ads, choose a design and placement that strikes a balance between optimizing CTRs and not annoying your readers. Sometimes it is better to forgo a monetization strategy if it is going to alienate your readership or come off as too aggressive and greedy.
3. Buy a new blog theme if necessary. Don’t hesitate to pay for a premium theme if you think it has the look and features that will achieve your goals. Just be careful that the code is not too heavy or your load times will suffer.
4. Don’t forget responsive design. Test your blog on different screen sizes, browsers, and devices to ensure it displays properly. This will also help you identify which pages and images are too heavy for mobile devices to load quickly.
5. Redesign a new, more interesting 404 page by linking to your most popular content. Hardcode links or randomize programmatically.
6. Consider a logo revamp. Ideally, you will have an image and text. The image should be able to stand alone for some of your social pages (e.g. Facebook and Twitter profile image).