If you like getting design inspiration by looking at excellent blog designs, you’ll love our new gallery site Blog Design Heroes.
As you surf through the internet you’re bound to come across certain designs that you love and some that you hate. But good blog design has a few unique elements when compared to the design of a traditional website. Here are ten things to keep in mind when designing your blog.
1. Content Should be the Focus.
A blog is nothing without its content. In order to keep your visitors focused on the content, it should be the focal point of the design. Distracting readers with excessive images and extra items can be counterproductive. For this reason, many of the best blog designs are fairly simple. Simplicity is common for blogs that want to emphasize the content.
2. Ease of Navigation.
Readers will come to your blog through search engines, links from other blogs, RSS feeds, social media sites, etc. Only a small percentage of your readers will enter your blog through the front page. This makes navigation even more important. The sidebar typically will include the majority of the navigation with links to categories, recent posts, and sometimes popular posts. Footers are sometimes also used for additional navigation.
3. Loads Quickly
Many of your visitors will have a very short attention span (this is really no different for blogs than traditional websites). In order to immediately catch their attention and avoid having them click off of your site, your pages should load quickly. This is especially important you plan to use social media to generate traffic. Some blogs are weighed down by excessive widgets that really hurt the page load speed. By keeping your blog clean and free of unnecessary items you can really cut down on the time it takes to load.
4. Content Start High on the Page.
This one is more of a personal opinion than a fact, but I believe that more of your visitors will pay attention to your articles if they start higher on the page. Make it as easy as you can for readers to get started with your posts, and then they’ll be more prone to scroll down for the rest. Again, this is especially important for traffic from social media sites. Those visitors will be less likely to scroll and more likely to click off of your blog.
5. Memorable for Visitors.
Most blog readers visit a number of blogs each day, and many of them will feature the same (free) themes. Make it easy for your visitors to remember your blog and standout from all of the free themes by customizing a theme yourself, or by having a blog theme professionally designed.
6. Not Overrun with Ads.
For most blogs making money with advertisements is a necessity. However, even in these cases it’s important to use advertisements effectively by not allowing them to take over the blog. Your readers will feel like they are not a priority to you if advertisements take center stage.
7. Compatibility with Multiple Browsers.
Your visitors will be using a number of different browsers, and if your blog is not functioning well in all of them you could be losing readers. Fortunately, 90% of your visitors will probably be using the leading 3 or 4 browsers. In order to know that you blog is functioning well you’ll need to test it in multiple browsers.
8. Good Use of Color.
The best designs effectively use color to improve the appearance. This can be done any number of ways, and sometimes it’s even a subtle aspect of design. The color combinations don’t have to jump out at readers, in fact, they actually need to make it easy for visitors to read the blog posts. If you’re looking for a good color combination, be sure to check out the resources listed in Find the Perfect Colors for Your Website.
9. Easy to Read.
This is really more about formatting the content of the blog than it is about a theme design. Keep in mind that most readers will be scanning your posts rather than reading them word-for-word. Use headlines, white space, lists, and bold text to make it easy for readers.
10. Important Items Should Be in Prominent Positions.
Effective design will draw the attention of readers to important items, such as subscription information. The most important links, images, etc. should generally go above the fold so that visitors will see them right away. Getting rid of unnecessary items will also help readers to focus on what’s important.
October 7th, 2007
This not only goes for blog design, but web design in general. Great post.
October 7th, 2007
I’m glad you’ve mentioned that a site should load quickly. Being a dial-up user, I suffer a lot when I visit certain sites.
I’d love to have a professionaly designed custom theme, if only I could pay for one.
Well, someday I’ll be able to afford it. 
One issue that might have been addressed by your post is how a good design can make things easier for visitors with disabilities. Maybe in a future article?
October 7th, 2007
I would like to think that I have all the above in place…but then again, it is subjective and reader’s impression is all that counts at the end of the day.
October 8th, 2007
[...] Vandelay discusses what makes good blog design. [...]
October 8th, 2007
Checking for cross-browser functionality is easily missed - nice post.
October 8th, 2007
Very nice post, I agree on all the points and especially with:
6. Not Overrun with Ads.
I think too many blogs and websites in general use a lot of annoying and obtrusive ads nowadays. I try not to (but it is also true that I don’t care that much about ads revenues).
Regarding speed and cross-compatibility… well, they’re the real challenges I think.
October 8th, 2007
“7. Compatibility with Multiple Browsers.” One way to bring this about is to work with W3C (www.w3.org) web standards. Most modern browsers offer a good degree of support for these standards meaning websites should render in very much the same in different browsers.
October 8th, 2007
Thanks everyone for your comments.
Karen,
You’re right. A lot of people forget about the dial-up users now. According to Google Analytics dial-up users make up a pretty small % of my visitors, so I am more prone to include images than I would otherwise, but I still try to keep things simple.
Pablopabla,
You’re absolutely right, it is subjective. That’s what makes it difficult.
Fabio,
Yes, ads are becoming more common everyday. I don’t mind them as long as they don’t interfere or slow things down. They’re a necessary evil in most cases.
October 8th, 2007
As long as I think it look good, I am ok. I also tweak all the free theme that I use to make it look better
October 8th, 2007
WarriorBlog,
I think making some changes to free themes is really necessary to standout.
October 8th, 2007
[...] Read more in this blog post. [...]
October 8th, 2007
@John
Unfortunately, W3C standards only mean that the site would look “ok” under all browsers - it doesn’t necessarily render the same way you meant it to. I’ve had it happen on one of my sites - looks good on FF, but not so good on IE - and yes, its validated
October 8th, 2007
@WarriorBlog
Do you use a custom theme? I didn’t notice a credits link, so I guess it is - it looks pretty simple and pleasing on the eyes, nice work!
@Steven
I remember asking you which plugin you were using to display the popular posts on the sidebar and if it was a template hack or if it was widgetized, unfortunately I don’t remember which post it was in, would you mind repeating it here? (I’m subscribed to this one, so I’ll remember 
)
I noticed you’ve just changed the way the titles are displayed on the sidebar, they look much better now.
Thanks.
October 8th, 2007
Karthik,
Thanks for noticing the sidebar changes. I didn’t like the old look, but hadn’t taken the time to get it how I wanted it. When I changed the theme a few weeks ago it wasn’t a big priority, but I realized that it really didn’t look good. I also added recent posts in attempt to improve the navigation.
The popular posts list is actually not using a plugin. I added that list to the sidebar manually, that way I can control what posts are there rather than having a plugin control it based on # of comments or something. For now I like it this way because I can change it whenever I want to.
October 8th, 2007
Ok, that’s an idea - I add a couple of them manually on my popular posts page too, funny I didn’t think of adding it directly to the sidebar!
I didn’t know I’d have company when I added them manually! I guess for some reason, some of the better posts don’t get as much attention!
October 8th, 2007
I think for me it just comes down to the fact that I would rather choose what I want to be there than to leave it up to a plugin. Plus, I try to keep plugins to a minimum.
October 8th, 2007
I wish there was more innovation in blog design..seems like we are getting stuck in the same patterns for new themes.
October 9th, 2007
[...] What Makes Good Blog Design? - Good summary about the major points of good blog design. [...]
October 9th, 2007
Yeah - I’m a big fan of the less-is-more school of thinking. Sites have to be easy to use. Period.
October 10th, 2007
@ Karthik - correct - there will be some variation in appearance cross browser, more so when a particular browser offers poorer support for W3C standards as is the case with IE. Using standards in our work though is a way of encouraging browser manufacturers to offer full standards support
October 10th, 2007
I think I have 1 fault - overrun with ads!
October 12th, 2007
wonderful…great and focus points….enjoy reading and trying to observe everything that you mention…thx for sharing your experienc e with us
October 13th, 2007
thinking of creating a personnal blog, i guess this is a goos article i should read, will apply this to my blog. thx for sharing
October 13th, 2007
Do you know of any good resources on fixing errors in different browsers. My site struglles in IE6 but does fine in IE7 and firefox. Any suggestions would be great. thanks.
October 13th, 2007
Mike,
I have a post from last month with resources for testing in multiple browsers.
October 14th, 2007
Ease of Navigation and Easy to Read . . . amen!
October 22nd, 2007
[...] You can read more here [...]
November 7th, 2007
[...] What Makes Good Blog Design? Guide To Promoting Your Blog Through Guest Posts 99 Ways To Promote Your Blog For Free How To Set Up A Domino Effect Of Traffic [...]
November 15th, 2007
Nice post. however I’ve categorized the essential requirements from two perspective-both human and technical. Please check 8 elements of a good blog theme or template. Your feedback will be highly appreciated.
December 29th, 2007
What Makes Good Blog Design? Guide To Promoting Your Blog Through Guest Posts 99 Ways To Promote Your Blog For Free How To Set Up A Domino Effect Of Traffic
January 28th, 2008
Important Items Should Be in Prominent Positions. So why do you have this as #10?
February 11th, 2008
Great article, I definitely agree on #6, if there’s too many ads it destroys the credibility of the site I’m viewing because I feel like they’re just writing for the money and not to make good content.
Astheria has a good article on the subject as well: http://astheria.com/design/the-user-expectations-of-a-blog
February 13th, 2008
[...] the The Top 10 Desing Mistakes and the Vandelay Website Design’s blog that has a post on What makes good blog design? So after many hours of looking through the hundreds of WordPress themes, of which you can view [...]
February 14th, 2008
I like your Top 10, I definitely agree that content should be high on the page to stand out to the viewer.
Something I’m tweaking is the positioning and use of adverts. It’s a fine balance to get it right.
February 18th, 2008
This is must read section for bloggers.
http://www.kishoreblog.com
February 18th, 2008
Great synthesis of thoughts on good blog design.
I find that many blogs not only get overrun with ads but also with too many widgets and other junk that take away from the focus of the blog.
February 25th, 2008
The worst thing for me when visiting blogs are adwords! I see a link underlined, so I mouseover, and instead of a link to something I’d consider useful, it’s an ad. I’m not sure why this irritates me so much, but it does…
March 2nd, 2008
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March 9th, 2008
i think this article not only cover blogs also cover all sites. if you want to make your web site useble you must follow these steps
March 20th, 2008
[...] What Makes Good Blog Design? [...]
April 2nd, 2008
Nice post!i love it!web designs are not so important in your blog. The important thing is you should focus in your content because the first thing to when your making a blog, web design is useless if your content is not interesting.
April 2nd, 2008
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April 30th, 2008
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May 6th, 2008
the The Top 10 Desing Mistakes and the Vandelay Website Design’s blog that has a post on What makes good blog design? So after many hours of looking through the hundreds of WordPress themes, of which you can view
May 31st, 2008
i think this article not only cover blogs also cover all sites. if you want to make your web site useble you must follow these steps
May 31st, 2008
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October 27th, 2008
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October 29th, 2008
Do you know of any good resources on fixing errors in different browsers. My site struglles in IE6 but does fine in IE7 and firefox. Any suggestions would be great.
November 9th, 2008
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November 18th, 2008
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December 14th, 2008
Thanks for a great article !
I can only agree that it works. Site Layout, content and good meta tags is the key to success with SEO.
December 16th, 2008
Opening up the blog to more participation is a great move.
You could also help readers track comments on each post
December 17th, 2008
I still have problem with the time of loading..
I try to reduce the pictures in my blog, but I hope it still looks nice.. Thanks for sharing this..
December 22nd, 2008
@Karl … those aren’t adsense advs, they are kontera and the double underline is your clue that it isn’t a standard link.
I have Kontera on my blog and I’m thinking of ditching it because it imposes too much on my readers attention span (and irritates them when they accidentally mouse over the links) and it doesn’t pay enough to compensate me for the potential lost traffic.
I think that putting small graphic ads at the bottom of posts makes the most sense. I hand-select ads that are relevant to the posts and fill the space across the bottom of the post with 4 or 5 of them. See my “Fit to be Kilt” article for a recent example.
I’m going to follow up your link to customizing a free theme. Mine pretty much sux … although it is getting progressively better (IMHO).
January 12th, 2009
[...] What makes a good blog design? (Which could called what makes good web design.) [...]
January 13th, 2009
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January 18th, 2009
I would like to think that I have all the above in place…but then again, it is subjective and reader’s impression is all that counts at the end of the day.
January 20th, 2009
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January 23rd, 2009
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January 23rd, 2009
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January 23rd, 2009
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January 28th, 2009
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February 3rd, 2009
I remember asking you which plugin you were using to display the popular posts on the sidebar and if it was a template hack or if it was widgetized, unfortunately I don’t remember which post it was in, would you mind repeating it here? (I’m subscribed to this one, so I’ll remember.
February 4th, 2009
Kral,
It’s not a plugin. They’re coded into the sidebar manually.
February 13th, 2009
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February 22nd, 2009
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February 24th, 2009
The only thing I would say is that in certain sections diagrams would be helpful in explaining, and more example exercises to try out would be great. Thank you for a fantastic web site!!!
March 13th, 2009
Unfortunately, W3C standards only mean that the site would look “ok” under all browsers - it doesn’t necessarily render the same way you meant it to. I’ve had it happen on one of my sites - looks good on FF, but not so good on IE - and yes, its validated
March 17th, 2009
Soon I will create a personal blog. This is ok - can serve an example for beginners.
March 21st, 2009
Kral,
It’s not a plugin. They’re coded into the sidebar manually.
April 25th, 2009
Easy to read is important. Remember when for some reason, everyone was using 8pt verdana on their websites? I remember getting my first 20″ monitor and realizing that so many websites’ text were so hard to read. Use a nice font and make it big enough to read at any resolution.
April 28th, 2009
What Makes Good Blog Design? | Vandelay Design Blogperfect and great article thank you
May 1st, 2009
What makes a good blog design? For me, a lot of it comes down to simplicity. Fewer ads, easy navigation, fast loading, easy to read - many of the things you mention are the result of simplicity. And the more complex a site is, and the more you’re trying to do with it, the harder it is to maintain simplicity. But in my view it’s often the simplest designs that are the most memorably and really put the emphasis on content.
May 6th, 2009
What makes a good blog design? For me, a lot of it comes down to simplicity. Fewer ads, easy navigation, fast loading, easy to read - many of the things you mention are the result of simplicity. And the more complex a site is,
May 18th, 2009
Really great tips that every blog owner should recognize.
May 26th, 2009
And how often to update the blog? Natural that the information must be unique.
June 4th, 2009
Thanks for these tips. I agree, that effective design will draw the attention of visitors to important things.
June 10th, 2009
[...] you’re designing a blog , why do you use a sidebar? In some cases sidebars are probably used because it’s just the [...]
June 15th, 2009
But in my view it’s often the simplest designs that are the most memorably and really put the emphasis on content.
June 15th, 2009
Ok, that’s an idea - I add a couple of them manually on my popular posts page too, funny I didn’t think of adding it directly to the sidebar!
I didn’t know I’d have company when I added them manually! I guess for some reason, some of the better posts don’t get as much attention!
kardrik
June 20th, 2009
Thanks for these tips. I agree, that effective design will draw the attention of visitors to important things.Cool and super…
June 25th, 2009
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June 28th, 2009
I agree, that effective design will draw the attention of visitors to important things.Cool and super…
June 29th, 2009
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