Buddypress.freenice.org

Your website design is important in many ways. This is the first thing new visitors would see, leaving out them the first impression towards your website. That’s why it is important to have a good looking, effective and productive design.

A good design can really improve your blog in many ways: improve reading of your content, pointing out on important parts or simply draw your visitors to come back again. This all gives you blog more credibility and functionality, improving your subscribers count.

Before choosing which kind of design your blog should have, you need to take care about some vital things regarding to a blog itself:

• Why you blog? It is important to know why do you actually blog. Is that because of the money or something else? Are you aiming on AdSense contextual ads or to sell some products from it? This all depends on which kind of design you might need.
• Your targeted audience? Your design may strongly depend on which kind of audience you expect to visit your own blog. Knowing the appropriate audience targeting, you may choose a different design for your blog. Because there is no some kind of universal design which all your visitors would like.
• What are your requirements? You probably want some kind of extended functionality on your blog. You will decide faster if you know exactly what do you want to include on your own blog. Actually, it is all up to your needs and requirements at the end.

What to include in your blog design

There are some functions you should consider importing into your own blog design. This may easily improve your blog functionality and productivity.

Contact info – Place some contact information on easily-spotted place on your blog. This lets your visitors and potential customers to contact your easily if they have some questions or offers to ask you. This is a must-have for all blogs out there.

About me section – Write down some basic things about you and place them into your website. It is always good to let your visitors know who stands behind a blog. This may open some new opportunities for you and improve your visitors loyalty.

Advertisements – Almost every blog on internet include advertisements to sell. Give your potential customers opportunity to know what they can purchase on your website and prices for ads you are selling.

Good Navigation – This is probably one of the most important things for every blog. Be sure to place some good navigation which can be accessed easily by anyone. It is always good to place your categories links, archives and pages on visible area on your blog.

Own Logo – Today, a logo is required for every serious blogger. In most cases it can be done by yourself, but if you do not know how to do it – it is the best way to ask some designers to create one for you. Prices for logos vary today, but they can be found pretty cheap these days on internet.

Subscription buttons – Let your loyal visitors opportunity to subscribe to your RSS feed updates. I usually use this kind of subscription for all blogs I follow and read regularly. So, place these buttons on easily spotted area on your blog.

Newsletter subscription – If you have a newsletter you run regularly, it is obvious you would let your potential subscribers to sign up. Let them know why they should sign up and place the form on visible area in your blog design.

Search option – Your visitors might not always find information they are looking for. So, it is important to let them opportunity to search through your blog easily. This is also a must-have feature for every single blog out there.

Recent/popular posts section – I like to know which kind of posts are most favorite and recent on blogs I read regularly. This is a very good way to get some visitors to browse through your website to find more valuable information easily.

Links to favorite posts – Your loyal visitors would like this feature. They want to know which posts you like on your blog. This also improve some browsing through factor on your blog. Additionally, your loyal visitors might like the posts you actually like.

Comments section – I like this module on blogs. This section encourages visitors to comment on your blog but in exchange you will get them some links to their blogs and sites. This may highly improve your comments count for sure.

Of course, these are only some ideas of what you might place in your blog. Improving some part of it may be a huge advantage for you and your future blog development.

I would like what do you place on your blogs? Feel free to post some comment below if you have something to say regarding this topic!