5 Elements of a Great Blog Design PinAside from your intriguing content, a beautiful and functional design is what will keep readers and fans returning for more of what you have to offer. A few weeks ago, we talked about 5 Tips to Make Your WordPress Site Look More Professional and this time, we will go over some examples of beautiful blog design and what makes them so! Fancy fonts and pretty colors will only take you so far in the blog world. To keep your potential readers returning, you need a balance of design and function that makes it simpler for people to navigate your site.

Have you ever walked into a store to look for a particular item and you are bombarded with a showroom with a plethora of clothing racks, an unorganized layout and wayyyy too many clothes on each rack? Yeah, neither have we. Do you know why?

This doesn’t happen in stores because their marketing and design departments know that the key to keeping shoppers in the store and buying items is to make it simple for the shopper to find what they need in a fun and functional fashion.

Blogs are the same way. If your home page is cluttered, unorganized and not user friendly, people won’t stick around to see what else you have to offer them.

So today, we are going to go over five examples of great blog design- and what makes them that way!

Every well-designed blog has certain basic elements that, designed together for a beautifully cohesive look, will make your blog inviting and easy to navigate!

Main Graphics
This blog is beautiful, with the simple color palette of blush and black, but what makes this blog stand out is the clean and structured look. The elements labeled in this design are:

  • Blog header: This is at the very top of your webpage and conveys your blog name and tagline (if you have one). You will want to use the same color family as your theme and can get creative with your fonts, just be sure that they are not too swirly or small so that people can read what it is. You want your header/logo to make an impact and speak to your brand.
  • Social Media Icons: These buttons are linked to each of your social media pages and make it simple for your readers to follow you on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, or any other social network that you frequent. It is best to place these “above the fold”, which is the part of the screen that you see upon arriving at the website without scrolling down. You want to make it as simple for you readers as possible to find you on your preferred networks!
  • Menu/Navigation Bar: This bar is SO important on any website, especially a blog! This bar allows readers to easily navigate around your site to find the pages and information that they are seeking. You can have static pages linked here (like an “about” page, or a “contact” page) or you can link to a post category, like all of your holiday posts, or fitness posts, or recipes.
  • Welcome Widget: This will have your picture (or whatever picture you choose to say “Hey, I write here!”) and a brief intro about you and/or what you write about. Note: this is best kept to 2-3 sentences and not long, rambling paragraphs!
  • Blog Button and HTML Grab Box: A blog button is placed in the sidebar along with an HTML text “grab box” so that other bloggers can copy that code and paste it to their website. Doing so will place that button on their website and link back to yours. Think of it as a sort of free advertisement for your blog! This widget can be created in Blogger or in WordPress.org.

 

So now that we have gone over the basic elements of a great blog design, here are 5 examples of some of these elements (and some “extra” ones as well!) created together for a cohesive blog design!

Parts1

This black and white design is timeless and understated. It has a simple nav bar with only the essentials, no extra clutter, so you are drawn into the typography and the message and not distracted by any unnecessary items. “Extra” items in this set are the custom Pin It button, which appears when you hover over any photo on the blog, and a customized signature for at the end of each blog post.

 

Parts2

This blog feels fun and welcoming, with the adorable illustration and coordinating colors. This element set includes a custom signature and background as well as a divider for in between sidebar widgets!

Parts3
This blog design has a feminine feel with the soft floral elements and femenine fonts. The set includes a divider image as well as additional welcome widgets and a customized signature.

Parts4 It’s not essential to match your blog design to the content of the site, but in this case, it works beautifully. We can tell that this is a craft blog, but the design is simple enough to still appear clean and inviting. This set includes a custom signature, background, sidebar divider, and additional button image.

Parts5This last blog has bright and bold colors and has such a fun feel! Teacher blogs in general tend to be very colorful and cute, and I really enjoyed making this one. The elements include a custom background, signature and sidebar divider, in addition to the 5 basic elements we mentioned above!

Even though these designs are all so different, each of them are clean and organized because they have the essential elements needed to get your message across clearly and simply. The key here is to establish your colors and feel and then make sure you have the elements needed for people to find what they are looking for quickly!

Blog design can be complicated! Thankfully Jumping Jax Designs is here to help with four blog design packagesΒ to fit any type of site, either Blogger.com or on WordPress.org. We can work with your favorite colors, fonts, and style to create an inspiring and inviting design for your little corner of the web!