If you’re like me, you want a blog design that looks nice, doesn’t confuse your visitors, and encourages them to hang around for awhile. Of course if you’re selling something, it’s always nice if they become customers.

That is after all why many of us start a blog, isn’t it? To make money or drive traffic to our business website?

Today I want to talk about professionalism and production quality when it comes to designing your blog. Its already been said online and by various gurus that your site visitors will ask themselves these questions immediately when they land on your site, especially if you’re trying to sell something:

• What’s Here?
• Why Here?
• Why You?
• Why Now?
• Why This?
• So What?

If you’re a blogger, I’m sure you’ve also heard that content is king. There are tons of blogs out there dedicated solely to this topic alone. They show you how to create creative and compelling content which ultimately gets your visitor to stick around or purchase something (i.e. convert).

But if you only have 5 seconds or so to convince a new visitor to stay on your site and have a look around, obviously your content won’t play a big role here. Instead, the visitor will scan your site in an instant and come to a conclusion: “Should I stay or should I go?”

Hey . . . isn’t that a song?

Let’s take a look at some things you can do so that you can communicate in 5 seconds what you’re all about and hopefully convince your site visitor to stick around and take notice. Remember this: Attention is like trust, you have to earn it.

Things you can do to capture attention and convey a message quickly

The first thing a new site visitor will notice is, well, your site. How does it look? What colors are being used? Am I being yelled at (bright colors, lots of capital letters, etc.)? Does it look like “my kind of site?” What’s that tagline say?

You’ll notice one of the questions I highlighted above is, “Is this my kind of site?” What I’m referring to here is in reference to your target customers. For example, if your target customers are computer/Internet techs, your site might be better designed to look high tech and possibly a little corporate; however, if your target customer base are low key and non-techie, then a more relaxed and calming site design might be more suitable.

Colors

For corporate colors, go with colors like:

• dark blue
• gray
• black and white
• dark red, etc.

For a more relaxed setting, try shades of:

• green
• soft yellows and oranges
• earth tones (brown, cream, etc.)

Image Quality & Message

Visitors will also notice immediately the quality of your images. Is that tagline in your header blurry? Make sure if you have text in an image, it comes out clearly and in a font that’s not hard to read.

Also, if you’re running banner ads in your sidebar, it would be nice if they had something to do with your niche. Site visitors who are not bloggers might not quickly realize those are advertisements. Instead, those banners convey a quick message to them. If you sell tax auditing services and in your sidebar there are 3 banner ads showcasing images and sites not related to your niche, that subconsciously tells your visitor a message, and it’s probably not related to finding tax services on your site.

Don’t confuse your site visitor with mix matches of messages in your images, because as I always say, a confused mind always says, no.

Font style and link color

For a while I was a big advocate for changing your link color to something that “pops”. I’m sure you have visited a ton of websites in the past, what color did 90% of those sites use for their link color? Blue, right. I experimented with different link colors and for a while favored red because it really popped out and was not what everyone did.

However, I must admit that time and experience has changed my mind on this. After reviewing my statistics, I found that the different link color really didn’t matter much. In fact, traditionally red has always been associated with danger or “Red Alert”. Therefore, my pick for link color is to simply stick with blue.

For font style, you can never go wrong with Arial, however other styles which seem to be easy on the eyes are Verdana and Tahoma.

As for font size, 12 is pretty standard. I’d say start there and see how it looks and if it makes sense to go a little bigger, try it. Whatever you do, don’t make your visitors have to squint to see your text. Black text over a white background is always preferable. If you experiment with anything other than that, be sure to get feedback from your regular site visitors, their input will help you iron out all the small details. Remember, not everyone uses the same screen size and monitor as you.

Convey quick messages with bullet points

Nothing works as quick and easy as bullet points. Knowing that 98% of new visitors to your site are going to first quickly scan your blog, you can use that information to your advantage. While scanning, they want the bullet points of what your site is all about, so give them bullet points.

Bullet points work really well in header images.

For example, our company which provides Blog Hosting could add 3 quick bullet points in our header image which quickly tells visitors what they need to know:

• Starting a blog made easy
• Get tons of help
• Learn the basics of blogging

For my tagline, also included in the header, I could use something like: “You blog. We’re here to help. It’s THAT simple.” Speaking of taglines, they traditionally go below your logo.

So in my header image now, I’d have the name of my company, a quick tagline, and 3 bullet points highlighting what my blog or website is all about.

Oh wait! Did we just quickly answer the What’s Here?, Why You?, and Why This? questions I highlighted at the beginning of this article?

In our example header image, we quickly sent our site visitor a message which told them:

• You can start a blog here.
• Starting a blog will be easy.
• With our company you will get tons of help.

A final tip: Start at the end and work backwards

Often times thinking in reverse works very well in most things relating to business. The same holds true for designing your blog. Start with then end in mind (i.e. what you want your visitors to do) and then build a site around THAT notion.

Everything else you add to your blog which doesn’t lead the visitor to do what it is you want them to do is just distraction and noise (and less money in your pocket).

Summary (for those of you that skimmed)

It’s ok, I do my fair share of skimming, too

• Look at your logo, tagline, font, colors, and quality of images. People look from the upper left down to lower right of your blog when scanning. Typically logo goes above the tagline.
• Focus your tagline for your audience. If they are newbies, make it sound friendly.
• Use quick bullet points to convey a message quickly. 3 to 4 are good, no more than 6. They would be well placed in your header image, if possible.
• Be careful sending mixed messages with images on your site. Your banner ads could tell a person scanning your blog a message which has no relation to what you’re all about.
• General site colors: Blue and gray (techie) are good for corporate looking websites, so is red and black and white and black. For a more laid back and non corporate look, try earth tones – browns, soft yellows, greens, soft oranges, etc.
• For link color, blue probably works best. Red means danger, error message, etc.
• When first designing your blog, think in reverse. What is the end result you want from a visitor? Design your site around that notion, everything else is just noise.

Food For Thought

What is the purpose of your blog?

If you’ve been blogging for awhile, has your blog become cluttered with a bunch of items in your sidebar which you really don’t need and does nothing for the purpose of your blog?

I know mine has, and I’m doing something about it as we speak.

Related posts:

1. Intro To Creating A Supermodel Blog Design Series
2. Landing Page Optimization: Lesson Learned by Watching Jesse James is a Dead Man
3. 20.4 Ways People Scan Your Website
4. Videos To Help Craft A Better Website & Attract Attention
5. Using Photos On Your Website