How To Design A Blog Post
Blogging is about more than just writing a wonderful piece of content that your audience will love. It’s about making it pleasing to the eye, too! It doesn’t matter how amazing your post is … if the page layout is distracting, confusing, or cluttered, your readers are going to bail. And what a shame that would be considering all of the time and effort it takes to create a post to begin with!
Today we’re going to share some tips on how to lay out each of your blog posts in an aesthetically pleasing way. Let’s hop to it.🐰
Ok, we love data and statistics so let’s start things off with this little nugget:
“According to a recent U.K. survey, bloggers have ranked as the third most trustworthy source of information, following only friends and family. That's right -- bloggers are trusted more than celebrities, journalists, brands, and politicians.”
(HubSpot)
If you’re providing valuable content consistently, it’s inevitable … you’re going to create a following. (Yay!👏🏼) However, people are visual. If your blog posts are filled with annoying pop-up ads or offer little relief in the way of white space, visitors are not going to stay for long. (Boo!👻) The good news: You do NOT need any kind of graphic design skills to lay your posts out in a visually appealing way! Simply follow these tips and you’ll be golden!
Tip 1: White space is your friend.
Ever visit a blog or website that’s stuffed like a Thanksgiving turkey with text? Everywhere you look, all you see is words, words, and more words! Ahhhhhh! That’s a big ouchy for the eyeballs. 👀
The trick with laying out any webpage is incorporating white space so the content feels easy to read and absorb. Make sure there’s a healthy amount of white space in the margins of your page as well as between paragraphs.
Tip 2: Organize your content with headers and bullets.
Most of us love to skim. We’re all super busy people who are on the hunt for fast access to information! Yes, it’s every blogger’s dream that visitors will sit down with a cup of coffee and leisurely soak in every last drop of each post. News flash: This is NOT reality! The majority of people scan content.
In a study on how people read websites, the Nielsen Norman Group discovered that…
“79 percent of test users always scanned any new page they came across; only 16 percent read word-by-word.”
Keeping this in mind, be sure to break up your content using headers, sub heads, and bullet points wherever possible. This will make your posts significantly easier to scan and digest.
Tip 3: Be on brand.
The imagery and accent colors used in your blog posts should represent the look, feel, and style of your brand. You don’t need to be like Skittles and utilize every color of the rainbow. In fact, that’s a bad idea when it comes to blog post design. Keep your color palette a simplistic representation of your brand.
Now let’s talk about imagery. If you’re in the business of photography, then you can pretty much skip this paragraph because, by nature, you already have a plethora of fantastic photos to choose from. (And we’re very jealous of you.) However, if you’re like the rest of us, you probably need to make use of stock photography.
Stock photos are a great way to add visual interest to your blog posts IF you’re selecting the right kinds of imagery. Be aware, there are some incredibly cheesy free stock photos floating around on the Internet. There are also some extremely beautiful stock images that you can use 100% free!
Our favorite sites for free stock photos are:
There are also sites such as Shutterstock, Getty Images, and Adobe Stock that you can purchase very unique, gorgeous stock photography from.
One important thing to mention here is NEVER EVER take a photo from Google images without fully understanding what the licensing and copyright details are. (In most cases, these photos belong to someone else and you don’t have permission to use them.) Your safest bet for incorporating photography into your blog posts is using one of the stock photography websites we’ve referenced above.
Tip 4: Make your links obvious.
If you link to other websites or resources within your blog post, make sure the hyperlinks are obvious so the reader knows where to click in case they wish to learn more. We use an accent color for our hyperlinks.
We also like to have external links open in a new window. This way, our website will remain open while the person is exploring a link that takes them off our site. If they do more clicking from there, our site will still be open in another tab and be easy to get back to if they wanted.
Tip 5: Place your CTAs above the fold.
Many business owners use their blog as a way to capture new leads. Aside from grabbing actual subscribers to your blog, you can utilize CTAs (calls-to-action) to get readers to click and complete some type of form. The CTA can be to download a guide (that relates to your blog post) or request a free consult. Whatever the action is that you want the reader to take next, be sure you tell them early on in the post! Remember, people tend to scan web pages and they don’t always make it all the way to the bottom. Place your enticing CTAs above the fold or above the point where they’d have to scroll to see more of the screen.
Tip 6: Offer a way to search.
We’ve all become spoiled by Google. We see a search box, plug in a few words, and BOOM! We’re instantaneously presented with all sorts of results! Your blog should offer this same level of convenience. Providing a search tool for readers will allow them to quickly find the type of content they’re looking for … and this will make them very happy.
And there you have it … six tips that can transform your blog for the better.
We design blogs using SquareSpace!
It’s the easiest, most user-friendly platform out there. If you’re looking to start a blog, free book a consult to learn more.