One of the most important and accessible visitor-to-reader conversion tool you have at your disposal is the blog homepage.
Having a poor homepage structure combined with the lack of relevant information or ways to find it will definitely push visitors away from your blog, while a clean, intuitive homepage will most likely become a decisive factor when it comes to turning visitors into readers.
From design aspects to coding advice, this article is dedicated to the process of improving your blog’s homepage.
Blog Homepage Design and Usability Tips
Your design is a very important factor in the visitors’ decision on continuing to browse your blog and eventually come back to read newer posts later. Don’t get me wrong here, as I said in a past post, content is king still, but for it to really make a difference there are other conditions that should be met. One of them is a good design.
By good design I mean a layout that perfectly fits your blog’s topic and target. Excessive, flashy, eye-candy graphics are not required on a financial blog, for example, but would be an added plus on a design/inspiration blog.
No matter the niche of your blog, there are a few things that will definitely improve your visitors’ experience, helping them find their way around through the huge amount of information that blogs usually contain. While in some cases you may consider skipping one or two of them, most times, checking all of the following would be a great idea:
- Get a custom logo design;
- Get a custom blog design;
- Use a smart, descriptive tagline;
- Encourage visitors to act;
- If it’s important, keep it above the fold;
- List recommended and/or popular posts;
- Use extended post excerpts;
- Add interactive elements.
Below you can read more about each of these requirements.
1. Get a custom logo design
Step out of the ordinary. Get an original, memorable logo, one that would speak about you and your blog. Sure, a custom logo requires an investment, but then again, no pain – no gain.
2. Get a custom blog design
Want to impress your visitors? Then, get a custom blog design. Even if it’s a totally original design, or a customization of a premium or a high quality free theme, you’ll definitely create a stronger impression on your visitors. If an original or premium theme requires too much money, you could start with one of the themes suggested in these 2 posts: 20 Free 3 Column WordPress Themes & 20 Free Corporate WordPress Themes.
Also, a mascot, something that people will always associate with your blog can also be considered. A mascot will also add an emotional factor in the visitor-blogger relationship.
3. Consider a smart, descriptive tagline
A tagline will be one of the first things your visitors will read. Make it short, smart and 100% relevant to you blog and visitors will know right from the start that they’ve come to the right place.
4. Encourage users to act
The time spent by a visitor on a page is extremely short. Make smart use of this time, not by driving you visitors crazy looking for options, but by offering them the most important options upfront. Encourage them to navigate through your blog, to search for more information, to subscribe to your feeds.
5. Keep important stuff above the fold
In web design, “above the fold” refers to the first scroll window. Give your users most of the things they need from the first glance on your blog. Consider a top navigation for pages with a “Home” button, since not everyone is used to clicking the logo to return to the homepage. Offer a search facilities and subscription options in the first scroll window.
6. Recommend some of your most important blog posts
Displaying a list of the post popular posts or personal favorites will encourage users to further browse through your blog.
7. Use extended post excerpts
In some cases, bloggers decide to only display blog post excerpts on the homepage. If you’re one of them, consider using the <!–more–> tag to display extended excerpts for at least one or two of the most recent posts to keep your visitors interested and to allow them contact with your writing style from the start. My next post will explain how you can achieve this from the coding perspective.
8. Add interactive elements
Consider using interactive elements like polls or forms (but keep them short and relevant). This kind of elements will encourage interaction between visitors and and blog, thus creating a strong relationship.
Conclusions
Think of your blog’s homepage like it was your own home. Would you keep it the way the constructor created it? Wouldn’t you want to paint the walls in your favorite color(s)? Wouldn’t you want to add furniture, paintings to add that personal touch and to create comfort? It’s just the same with blogs, only that instead of thinking only through your specter of wishes, you should also consider your visitors’ needs and action routines.
Instead of making them look for everything, try and offer most options (not necessarily all) upfront, but be careful not to create chaos instead of a clear, organized and useful structure.
Photo credits to Chris Lim.