There are a few things that all successful blogs have in common. Good content, posted on a regular basis is obviously important. You need a fresh new angle on whatever subject it is that you write about too, so you can make yourself stand out. But one thing that people tend to overlook is the usability of those blogs. Most popular blogs are well designed and easy to use, meaning that visitors can quickly find content that they are interested in. If your blog usability isn’t great, that will put people off and it’s unlikely that they will become a regular reader.
Getting subscribers is crucial if you want to turn your blog into a business and a well-designed blog that is easy to navigate will encourage more people to subscribe. If you think that usability issues might be holding your blog back, these are some of the best ways to fix them.
Measure The User Experience
Before you make any changes to your blog, you need to know what works and what doesn’t, so you should measure the user experience. Looking at the data about how visitors interact with your site, how long they stay on each page, and what the abandonment rate is, etc will help you understand which parts of your blog need work. Finding the right user experience metrics and kpis can be difficult and many people don’t know exactly what to look for when measuring the user experience on their blog. Simple things like page views, abandonment rate, and the number of new subscribers are a good place to start. It’s also worth using a website testing service so you can get more detailed opinions from users about the way that your blog functions.
Streamline The Front Page
If people land on the front page of your blog and are bombarded with information and pop-ups, they will be overwhelmed. Too much choice is a bad thing and often causes people to get stuck because they don’t know what to click on first. An overcrowded website also looks messy, making it harder for people to find relevant content. If you strip back your blog and just have a simple, stylish design on the front page with a few posts, a small section about you, and a search function, visitors will find it way easier to navigate.
Prioritize Functionality Over Style
It’s important that your blog design reflects you as a person and you want it to be unique, so your site stands out. However, it’s important that you always prioritize functionality over style. People come to expect a certain layout when they visit a website. Although there is flexibility, they expect to see headers and footers, a sidebar, a menu on the top, and a search function. Everybody immediately understands these basic elements and how to use them to navigate the website. It’s ok to be creative, but if you mess with the formula too much, people will be completely lost.
It’s good to change the design of your blog every now and again to keep things fresh, but make sure that you always consider usability when you do.
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