It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that having a quality website is one of the best ways to get noticed as a blogger. If your website is visually appealing, fast with the best web hosting and easy to navigate, it’ll offer a better user experience for your audience, and your clients. Not only does this mean they’ll be more likely to return and to recommend you to their contacts, but it could also increase your visibility in Google search results, as user experience has a big influence on search engine ranking.
With countless blogs hit by Google’s recent Helpful Content Updates – and Googles’ intention to start ranking on Interaction to Next Paint (INP) within Core Web Vitals from March 2024 fuelling further concern – you might be asking yourself how you can tweak your blog in order to improve user experience.
So, here are my five top web design tips for bloggers. How many of these tips have you put into place already, and has it helped you to improve your blog metrics? Leave a comment below the blog post to let me know your thoughts.
Choose an impactful blog title and domain
Choosing the right blog title and domain is key to ensuring blog success. This will often be your first point of contact with your audience and clients, so you need to maintain professionalism and spark interest, while also considering SEO implications. Even if you’ve settled on your blog name prior to setting up your blog domain, it pays to give it some further thought before setting things in stone; if you change your mind at a later date, switching to a different domain can have a detrimental impact on traffic.
How to choose a name for your blog
- Choose a blog name that accurately reflects the content you’ll be blogging about.
- Don’t be afraid to opt for a quirky title…
- …but consider the importance of SEO too – use simple keywords so search engines can work out what your content is about.
- Ask yourself whether your chosen blog and domain name is unique, or whether other bloggers or brands have already claimed it for themselves?
- Consider whether you’ll be likely to experience any future life changes which might make you want to change your blog title or domain name.
How to select a domain name and extension
When searching for domain names and extensions, you’ll see a range of top-level domains ending in .com, .net, and .org. Generally speaking, it’s best to settle on the .com domain name as this is the industry norm, so choosing a .com domain name can help to establish credibility. However, dependent on where you’re based, you may also choose to purchase another variation of your domain name which you can redirect to the main .com site (as I’ve done with my blog, as I operate both within the UK and further afield).
Shop around to find the right domain name and/or hosting provider for you. With reputable providers for domain names such as IONOS, you can build your brand on free Wildcard SSL. IONOS allows you to enjoy free private registration and free 2GB for your email account for as low as $1 for a year. If the domain name you want is taken, you’ll be offered exclusive prices for the most relevant alternative domains on the market.
Align your design with your blog branding
Once you’ve settled on your blog title and domain name, it’s time to think about branding. It’s easy to forget you’re running a business when you’ve monetised your blog, as opposed to just nurturing one of your passions or hobbies.
Just as is the case for any successful business, your blog or website should be an extension of your brand. Consider all aspects of your existing blog branding and aim to make a consistent impression when designing your blog. From your logo and brand colour palette, to chosen brand fonts and tone of voice, aim to keep branding consistent across your blog and social media platforms.
If you haven’t yet thought about branding, there’s no time like the present. Consider the character and mission of your brand and how best to reflect this in your logo, brand colour scheme, and tone of voice. How do you want to come across to your readers and customers, and how best can you embody this through your branding?
Create a simple blog homepage
Your homepage is the first thing your readers and clients will see when they visit your blog. Regardless of what strategy you’re using to direct visitors to your website, your homepage layout, navigation, and visibility of quality content will ultimately determine whether they stay. You can achieve this with a properly functioning and resourceful homepage, perhaps by following a guide available from sources like CreateWPSite – WordPress tutorial YouTube videos for helpful guidance. This will allow you to offer a smoother user experience in order to increase time on the page, minimise bounce rate, and keep visitors coming back again and again.
Make a point of telling your story in a nutshell on your blog homepage, expanding in your ‘About Me’ section. This can help to add colour and illustrate your blogging journey to brands and followers, while playing an important role in your branding journey.
When designing your homepage, avoid overwhelming visitors with information. Focus on visual elements, rather than heavy blocks of texts. Don’t forget to add a clear call-to-action prompt too; this is a wonderful opportunity to encourage readers to sign-up to your newsletter or to direct potential clients to your contact page, for example.
Optimise your website
It’s pointless taking the time to perfect your blog title and domain name, and get your branding and design right, if you’re not going to pay any attention to search engine optimisation (SEO). This is one of the most valuable skills you could possibly learn as a blogger; since I began optimising my blog and my blog posts for SEO, I’ve seen my traffic increase drastically, and I kick myself for not doing it sooner.
On-page SEO
Where on-page SEO is concerned, here are some important factors to be mindful of:
- How your audience access your blog (i.e. mobile, desktop or tablet), and how best to optimise for each platform
- Keyword-optimised meta descriptions, URLs, title tags, image alt tags and text content for the different pages on your blog, as well as individual blog posts (I highly recommend Keysearch over Google’s Keyword Planner, for discovering keyword phrases to target).
- Internal linking – aim to make natural links between different pages of your blog (such as linking your ‘About Me’ page to your ‘Contact Me’ page), as well as adding internal links to connect relevant blog posts
- Avoiding or eliminating duplicated content (i.e. blog posts that cover the same, or similar, topics)
- Site speed – assess your site using a reputable tool like Google PageSpeedInsights, to identify areas for improvement
- Create and maintain a site map and submit it to Google Search Console
- Resolve any errors on your blog identified in Google Search Console, and/or Ahrefs – two invaluable tools for those seeking to improve search engine ranking
Off-page SEO
Besides on-page SEO, you’ll need to consider the potential for off-page SEO to influence search engine rankings. For example, you should consider:
- The number of backlinks and referring domains pointing to your site
- Brand signalling – when users type the name of your blog into a search engine to find you directly, this can signal an established presence to the likes of Google
It’s no secret that a successful blogger needs a quality website in order to attract both readers and clients, and ensure that they return. However, many of us tend to overlook the importance of this until we’re faced with the daunting prospect of a Google algorithm change. It really pays to be a little more proactive when it comes to how we set up, and manage our blogs. By paying a little more attention to our blog branding, website design and SEO, we can help to ensure our blogs continue to flourish even in the face of daunting Google updates, and fierce competition from fellow bloggers.
What are your top tips for a sound blog set-up and website design? Do you have any tried-and-tested strategies for driving traffic to your site? Let me know all about it in the comments.