Send to KindleThis week, a guest post by Bob Dunn, AKA @bobwp. I think he’s been living around a writer for too long because he’s into those metaphor and analogy things. Learn how to spice up your blog so it’s a comfortable and inviting house your readers won’t want to leave.
6 Interior Design Tips to Make Your Blog User-friendly
BY Bob Dunn
Your blog is your house. And your visitors ring the doorbell with one question in mind: “Will I find what I need here?”:
Your content may be incredible, but it won’t get read unless you have set up the basics that will get your visitors from point A to point B quickly and effortlessly.
Your readers want clean, simple, easy-to-use. If the experience is clunky, complicated or cumbersome, you can bet they won’t be back—even if your posts are astounding.
Here are some tips to make your blog user-friendly:
1. Start with a strong foundation.
If you have a WordPress blog, the theme provides its framework. It is your foundation—the house within which everything fits. If it is weak, it won’t support all the things you need your blog to do. Theme design is a huge factor in usability, so shop around. Look at other sites for ideas. If you have a very specific look in mind, just be aware that it may mean some customization, which equals more time and money.
But with all the theme choices out there, often you can find one that gives you what you want. Consider looking at premium themes and imagine your content fitting into one of them, nice and tidy, with no wasted space or expensive remodels.
2. Make your front door as inviting as it can be.
Ever visited a house in your home buying days and the front door was all chipped, with the paint coming off and the weatherstripping coming loose? It didn’t matter what was inside because your experience had already been ruined. Well, your blog’s header is like that front door.
I’m going to use that five-letter marketing cliché here: brand. Your header is prime real estate and it should reflect your brand. If you are a business, use your logo and colors. If you are a writer and you are branding yourself as author, you might consider putting your face in the header, or at least in a prominent spot on the home page.
If your blog is about gardening, well, you get the point. I find so many blogs that use the default photo (the one that came with the theme) in their header. If you are talking about marketing on your blog and your header image is a picture of a stream in the woods, what does that tell me about the inside of your house? Does it give me a clue about your content? You might also consider a tagline that sums up what you are about in a short phrase or sentence.
3. Make it easy for readers to find your main rooms.
Your top navigation bar takes visitors to your blog’s main pages—your ‘rooms.’ As you build your house, decide which ones are the most important and label them accordingly. Don’t clutter that bar up with too many buttons because I may get lost. Make good use of your sub-navigation menu. Make it easy to read with clean, simple fonts and enough contrast between the background and font colors so I don’t have to strain my eyes to figure out what it says.
Because I may be looking for the bathroom and that could get kind of tense.
4. Be sure your garage has all the tools your readers need.
Your blog’s sidebar has all the tools your user needs, kind of like a garage. In this case, the tools are the widgets and plugins. With WordPress, some themes, and even plugins, allow you to create custom sidebars for each page. That means that the most important content for each page can be placed on the side of that page.
For instance, on your home page, place the sidebar widgets people will most need when they first land on your blog. On your about page, you might include widgets like social media connection buttons, your latest tweets, or even a few testimonials. If you have a products page—books or other things—consider using affiliate links that showcase your product (and allow you to make a few extra bucks at the same time). Think in terms of what logically fits in that sidebar, and whether it’s a distraction, which you definitely don’t want.
5. Sweep off that front porch and make the iced tea.
This may be the most important place of all: your front porch. It’s where people will want to hang out with you and your other guests, put their feet up, get to know you better. Be sure it’s easy for readers to comment on your blog (consider axing the moderation of comments and that pesky Captcha that makes readers copy those wiggly letters and numbers). Make sure they can easily connect with you on other social media platforms—Twitter, Facebook, etc.—so they can continue the conversation.
Just one word of caution: Be sure you are active on these platforms and aren’t putting them there because they are shiny and pretty or your friend Kate has them. There is nothing more frustrating than clicking on a Twitter account that hasn’t been updated in three months.
6. Make the playroom friendly and your ‘toys’ shareable.
As kids, we learned to share our toys when we played. Same thing on your blog. Don’t keep the best things hidden when your friends come over. Make it easy for your readers to play with (and share) your content on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. They also should be able to ‘stumble’ it through the social share site, StumbleUpon. Keep those buttons in front of their eyes so all it takes is one click.
Because if you don’t make it easy for me to share, well, I might not want to visit your house anymore.
So, which part of your house has been the most challenging?
Does your house also have other parts?
Which of these six have you had the most fun with?
Bob Dunn is a WordPress trainer, coach and speaker. He provides online, one-to-one support and onsite training, webinars and workshops for groups. He blogs at bobwp.com and is also a contributor at For Bloggers By Bloggers and the BlogWorld Expo blog. You can catch his dynamic presentation at BlogWorld Expo in New York this June.
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Love the analogy and ‘houseful’ of tips.Tagline and garage has been most difficult for me, but I’m working on it.
Yes that garage can be the most challenging sometimes. I have dine so many posts just in managing toy sidebars
Bob Dunn recently posted..How to create menus in sidebars and other widget areas
Great analogy! I love the way you expressed your ideas. This fool-proof guide of yours can mean a lot for bloggers.
Thanks glad to hear you enjoyed it
Bob Dunn recently posted..How to create menus in sidebars and other widget areas
Love this Bob
am just off to pin it.
Sarah Arrow recently posted..“101 Little Miracle Tools” by Linda Mattacks – a ton of great advice in one toolbox
Sweet, pin awa my friend! Thanks for sharing….
Bob Dunn recently posted..How to create menus in sidebars and other widget areas
I Love the no. 5 and 6 ideas. My dream house is to have a simple room for kids to play and the ice tea section. Thanks for sharing the ideas of interior designing.
Tracyann0312 recently posted..שיווק סלולרי
Clean and simple is always a good route to go with your blog.
Bob Dunn recently posted..How to create menus in sidebars and other widget areas
Thanks Bob. Your help as a Word Press expert got my blog off and running. Readers, consider hiring Bob to fix up your site. Having a designer can help too.
Medical blog recently posted..Belly Fat Is Bad For Our Health
Thanks so much for the kind words… yes, I am blushing.
And yes, great idea to have a designer help you.
Hey Bob, good stuff as usual. I went for ifeature theme and it’s pretty good. More or less my WP house seems pretty clean now but I can probably do something with that top navigation bar. Thanks for the hint.
Andrea Hypno recently posted..How to Open Your Third Eye Step by Step
A clean WP house is a nice house : )
And that navigation bar can sometimes be a bugger. I just finished helping a client clean hers up as she had some many things in it and people found it cumbersome. But she needed those there so we had to get creative!
Bob Dunn recently posted..WP Touch Pro Mobile Plugin
WordPress.com just changed my theme, Twenty Ten. I no longer have a footer, just one long roll with no share buttons. This theme does not offer a share widget.
Do you know any social media widgets for WordPress.com?
Bloggers on WP forum are irate.
Deborah Taylor-French recently posted..Wordless Wednesday: Blog Paws
Actually, I believe that there is a sharing tool built in and it’s under your settings. Once those are setup a sharing option should appear on your posts… let me know if you have any problems finding it.
Bob Dunn recently posted..How to create menus in sidebars and other widget areas
Wonder where my comment went?
Help with WordPress.com, please. They have turned my theme into a constant roll with no footer. I’ve lost my share buttons, along with hundreds of other bloggers using theme, Twenty Ten.
Deborah Taylor-French recently posted..Wordless Wednesday: Blog Paws
Off the top of my head wondering if it will be too hard to move to Twenty Eleven. Although if you have done some customizations, that would be an issue.
I did go into my WP account and activated twenty ten. And it looks like I have 4 footer areas, wonder what happened. So it sounds like a lot of others are also having this issue…
Bob Dunn recently posted..How to create menus in sidebars and other widget areas
WordPress changed theme Twenty Ten into an endless blog roll. We ALL lost our footers. Period.
Bummer! My sharing widget was in my footer. I’ll see if I can get it back for my sidebar.
I’d rather not have to change themes because I want to put thought and time into building a Web site I can sell my writing and books from.
Any tips for how to link my new Web site to my blog?
Sounds like your website and blog are two separate sites, right?
If so, unfortunately, for SEO it’s good to have them in one site, But if they have to be separate, your next best bet is to have your blog as a subfolder on your site. For example, yourdomain.com/blog. The reason for this is any traffic you get to your blog will reflect on your URL and help your websites page ranking.
Now if they are two separate sites, best thing is just to make sure and link back and forth between them and make it easy for people to do that. Eg. have a link either in your navigation bar or a prominently in your sidebar.
Thanks Bob.
No, I haven’t yet built my author Web site. Buying my URL today, perhaps from 1&1 as I dislike GoDaddy.
I plan to relocate or migrating my blog to reside inside my Web site. My blog http://www.dogleadermysteries.com is backed up in MarsEdit on my Mac so that should help my move.
Thinking of buying a theme like Genius and moving to WordPress.org (Web designer needed). My partner wants me to use RapidWeaver. I know I need an easy to maintain site, any hints much appreciated.
What are your suggestions on how to compare Web design features and option for showcasing and selling my Dog Leader Mystery short fiction and novels? I need a site that is kid and family friendly, easy and quick to use.
Thanks! Deborah
Deborah Taylor-French recently posted..Greek Word for Mystery + a Bighearted Dog
Hey Deborah, sorry this got stuck in spam so didn’t see this till today.
First I would recommend trying someone else besides 1&1. I am like you regarding GoDaddy, but also know several people who have had bad experiences with 1&1. My recommendations would be Bluehost or Hostgator for hosting, but it really doesn’t matter where you purchase your URL.
So I’m guessing you are talking about StudioPress and Genesis, which is an excellent choice. They have some really great child themes to choose from. I’m not aware of RapidWeaver, so hard to recommend either way.
The one thing about WordPress, is it does take a bit of learning, but once you have, you will love it. And there is just so much more room to grow with your site.
Hard to say right off hand what theme might work for your site, as there are so many. I often am hired just to help people find themes. But most of the good one’s are clean, and when designed right, easy to use for the user.
Hope that helps a bit…
Yes, that helps. I so want to return my time to generating new short mystery stories for kids. I want a Web site that’s kid friendly. May even create some apps related to chapter book plots and characters. Have no clue what would be best, economical and not a huge time vacuum.
Just stumbled on this. Have you seen it? http://www.landerapp.com/features.html Looks cool but maybe the free version would be too limiting over a span of years?
Deborah Taylor-French recently posted..Gold Standard German Shepard: Mutt Monday
Not to get into too much, but any service like this you are on their platform… so much better to have a self-hosted WordPress site. If you need any coaching or consulting, let me know…. : )
Bob, great post. Glad to see the lyricism of Judy’s writing is contagious
. Your timing is perfect for me, as I was just contemplating spiffing up my front door! The other point you mention that I need to explore is being able to customize my sidebar depending on the page – not sure that’s an option with my WP theme, so I need to check. Overall, this a great reminder to do a little housekeeping and clear out the cobwebs… thanks!!
Beth Buelow, ACC, The Introvert Entrepreneur recently posted..There IS an “I” in Team: Introverts, Creativity & “The New Groupthink”
Hey Beth, yes, Judy has taught me well : )
And glad this helped. Remind me, what theme are you using? I know there is a plugin that is suppose to do this, it has worked for some, others it’s been a bit buggy. Let me look that up and post it here…
Bob Dunn recently posted..I’m Speaking at BlogWorld Expo 2012, New York City
Thanks, Bob. Here’s my theme’s page: http://www.obox-design.com/themes_page.cfm/theme/gloss-surface It’d be great if a plugin gave me that functionality… but I’ve made it this long without it, so if not, so be it (for now)
Beth Buelow, ACC, The Introvert Entrepreneur recently posted..There IS an “I” in Team: Introverts, Creativity & “The New Groupthink”
Hey Beth, I did find it, and it’s called custom sidebars. Wow, that was obvious : )
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/custom-sidebars/
What you might do is give it a try and make sure nothing wonky happens. I have heard this can work great with some themes, and others it can have some issues. If you see anything weird happen, just get rid of the little bugger…
Bob Dunn recently posted..How to create menus in sidebars and other widget areas
Bob, I think it’s brilliant, the way you’ve renamed everything on a blog after a part of a house. I’m currently revamping my front door and garage to make them welcoming and useful, respectively.
Shakirah Dawud recently posted..Selling For Your Prospect’s Attitude Part 1: The Selfish Reader
Thanks so much and best of luck with that front door and garage.
Love the post and the comparison here, Bob. I like to think that I did all this good but I do always change and experiment. I just edited a layout on one of my niche sites and my income grew like crazy. The biggest change was the navigation.
On the blog, I am also testing and at the moment, there are no categories to search through (unless you go from the post) but rather landing page pointing people to certain information.
I love experimenting, testing and tracking and I guess I am trying to keep my house as accessible as I can
Brankica recently posted..One Tip That Will Make Your Blog Stand Out
Sounds like you are doing some good testing… which I love to hear. And those categories have their place. For me, because of all of my tutorials and videos, categories are the the perfect answer as well as tags. But I like the idea of where you are going with your navigation. And I always enjoy coming to your house : )
Bob Dunn recently posted..How to create menus in sidebars and other widget areas
Really great information that you shared here Bob. I just talked with my designer about optimizing my genesis theme because I want to really offer a great platform for my readers. I feel that’s one of the most important factors of being a blogger. If you want to be taken seriously or really want your community to be more involved with your blog then it all starts with the design and the flow of the entire site. Thanks for sharing your knowledge on this.
Justice Wordlaw IV recently posted..How to Prepare for An Increase In Website Traffic
So true! Design and functionality are critical to a site. Nothing more frustrating than a site that is challenging to find the information you are looking for.
It’s like I say, there are three areas to you site/blog. SEO, content and design/Functionality. If one fails, you have wasted your time and effort on the others.
Bob Dunn recently posted..How to create menus in sidebars and other widget areas
I’m on Blogger–that’s where I started and haven’t been inspired to change to otherwise yet. Hopefully I have a welcoming site. I seem to have plenty of regular visitors so I guess something must be working for me.
Lee
An A to Z Co-Host
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Arlee Bird recently posted..My Tribute to a Very Special Blogger
Yeah, it’s that old adage, if it’s not broken, why fix it?
The one thing I always recommend to my clients when it comes to their blog, try not to depend on someone else’s platform. For example, WordPress.com, blogger.com or type pad.com. It is so much better to self-host a WordPress blog. The reason being is you own the content and structure. When you are on someone else’s platform, you are restricted by their terms of use limitations and they can do whatever they want with your blog…and by self-hosting, you have so much more room to grow : )
Clean and simple blogs are the way forward, too much clutter on most these days!