10 More Tips on Blog Design from Savvy Blogging Summit

at OhAmanda.com

Last week, I posted ten tips on blog design from the Savvy Blogging Summit.  However, there were just way too many great tips to keep it to ten.  So, this week for my top ten Tuesday post, I’m going to share ten more design tips from the class taught by Joy from Five J’s Designs.

(You can read some of the other top ten tips from various Savvy Blogging Summit Classes as well, such as: Effective Monetization, Personal Productivity, and Photography.  You can also buy the recordings and handouts from Savvy Blogging Summit.)

So now, here are ten more tips on blog design:

1. With more and more people using mobile devices to surf the Web, it can be very helpful to offer a mobile site template to your readers. You can read more about it at a site like Mofuse.com.

2. Your header should be linked to your homepage. If at all possible, make sure that if someone clicks on your header, it’s going to be clickable.  People expect this, so it makes for easier navigation for your readers.  (Even if you have a “home” button somewhere, it still helps to have your header linked to your homepage.)

3.  If you have a navigation bar (which is a fabulous way to help visitors get around your site), you should try to limit the navigation bar to seven or fewer links.  (This doesn’t count those that might be available as a drop down to your main seven or less, which can be for lesser used links.)

4. Be concise with the titles of items in your navigation bar. No reason to say, “If you want to drop me an email” as a navigation item when you could just say “Contact.”

5. Have an archives page available or a drop down in your sidebar.  (Angie’s Note: I personally use a plugin called Smart Archives Reloaded set to the fancy style and I really like it.)

6. Use categories and subcategories to help with site navigation.  (Angie’s Note: I have done a nice job with this on The Homeschool Classroom.  I have not done a nice job with this on Many Little Blessings.)

7.  Consider having a “Start Here” page on your blog where you highlight your most helpful or popular posts, as well as maybe a tutorial on using your site.

8. Although you don’t have to put your main content on the far left, readers tend to read from left to right.  So, whatever is on the far left does tend to get noticed first.  Consider having your content be on the far left to help it get noticed first.

9. Your main post column should be larger than the sidebars. (Angie’s Note: Ever been to a site with huge sidebars or many small ones, and then a tiny area for content?  Did you enjoy that reading experience?)

10. It is best for readability to have content either left-align or justified. Don’t center your content within your post — it makes it much harder to read.

My ten items are up, and I still could probably right another one or two (or three or four) top ten posts from Joy’s talk (including information about coding and a plugin for Mozilla Firefox, FireBug,  that all made me feel comfortable enough to tackle designing the new Catholic Mothers Online site all by myself).

So, I guess I’ll just have to say that if you are dying to hear more of Joy’s tips, you might consider picking up the talk, power point, and handouts.  The cost is only $10 for all of that, which is a drop in the bucket compared to hiring someone to do your design for you.

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Tagged as: savvy blogging summit