How to Boost Your Blog with the Right Web Design Techniques

The value of a high-performance website cannot be overemphasized in the contemporary business landscape.  If your business has no online presence, then you are staring at a grim reality of slow death. With over 3 billion people using the internet, there is no ignoring this platform.  Even big brands are now feeling the heat and they have been forced to shift their attention to the online market.  Smaller businesses now have a chance to compete on a level playing ground with global brands. Little wonder then that startups have benefited from disruptive internet technology.

Well, with every business turning their attention to the internet market, the competition has become stiffer than before. This calls for creativity and innovation in order to make your website stand out. Competing on a global platform means every brand needs more visibility and one way to do this is by leveraging the growing influence of blogging. 

If you are thinking of a way to boost your website in your niche, it is time to think about a professional blog. Such a blog must be built around the best practices in web design. Contrary to what most website owners think, a blog is not just a platform to publish content. Such an attitude leads to poor blog design with a misconceived belief that readers will come and read your content anyway.

Below are some highlights on blogging and how the right web design techniques can have an impact on your business.

Blogging for Better Business

When thinking of search engine optimization (SEO), most online marketers don’t prioritize blogging, which is a big mistake. In a 2014 study, 89% of companies said they considered blogging to be one of the most important marketing strategies. By 2016, 36% of Fortune 500 companies had a public blog, highlighting the importance attached to this tool. Considering that 77% of Americans read blogs when online, it goes without saying that you need a blog for your website to own a piece of the growing internet market.

In summary, a blog is crucial in any comprehensive SEO campaign. Below is a summary of the reasons you need to work more seriously on your blog:

1. Blogs drive more traffic to your website – You can easily make your blog the foundation of your social media marketing by sharing content on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other relevant networks. This increases traffic flow to your website. With addition of inbound links directly on your blogs, you will drive traffic to specific landing pages.
2. Boosts ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs) – The dream of every blogger is to of course gain a high ranking on SERPs. However, this is easier said than done. With stiff competition amidst Google algorithm updates, you have to do more to please the search engines. One way to do this is by publishing fresh and relevant content, sharing it on social media, adding internal links to your content, and optimizing keywords among other techniques.
3. Customer engagement – A blog gives you a chance to interact with your target audience. Readers will ask questions about the content and you must be available to give prompt feedback.  Such interactions give you anopportunity to clarify issues about your brand and give your business a human face.
4. Building your brand as an industry leader – A good blog will gradually position you as an authority in your niche.  Readers are always looking for high-quality content and if you market your blog vigorously on social media, you will eventually emerge as an authority,which translates to customer trust and loyalty.
5. Better traffic and conversion –By posting fresh content and sharing the same on social media, you will drive traffic to your website. You can easily convert such traffic into leads, which is the dream of every marketer.

There is much more you can do with a well-built blog.  However, you have to appreciate the challenges that come with blogging. The biggest challenge of these comes early in the blogging process. Designing a blog might seem easy but if it was, many web masters would not be struggling with their blogs.

Creating a blog does not have to be difficult. Here are some blog design tips that you can use to create a professional, high-performance, interactive and effective blog for your business:

• Goal-driven design – Don’t crowd your blog design but instead, create a visual hierarchy leading to a call-to-action (CTA).  For example, feature a couple of headlines leading to a CTA at the bottom.
• Leverage style guides– Style guides are popular in publishing and they come in various formats. Choosing a styleguide for your blog ensures uniformity, which makes it easier for readers to identify with your blog.
• Larger font sizes – Make sure you use large font sizesto immediately capture the attention of readers. Remember internet users are renowned for their short attention span. Big typography is a hot trend though it is not something new. With the popularity of smaller screens, larger fonts are better if you want to appeal more readers.
• Embrace whitespace – You have most likely visited a blog only to get overwhelmed by the clutter on the page.You probably have a lot to say, but avoid having it all on one page. Too much clutter will distract your readers and will be counterproductive. Anything that doesn’t contribute to accomplishing your blog goals should not feature.
• Use 2 to 3 colors only – Unless you want your blog to look like an abstract painting, avoid mixing too many colors. It might look beautiful to the eye but remember, you goal is to havevisitors read your content up to the call-to-action (CTA). Have a primary color and a call-to-action color.

Other design techniques to consider for your blog include using perfectly matching color schemes, separatingsections with 1-pixel borders for a clean and crisp layout, implementing subhead hierarchy in the content, using responsive website design adjustableto all-sized screens and of course, a very simplified navigation layout. With these tips it becomes easier tohavea blog design that works towards achieving your SEO campaign goals.