Blogging has been a habit and passion for years for those who like to write. Previously, blogging was only done by individuals who were into expressing themselves and spreading knowledge as articles. Now, businesses also use blogging for publishing content in their relevant industry. It helps them to establish their company and brand as an expert in their field.
As more and more people and organizations move towards blogging, they like to have their own blog website. Having your own blog gives you the freedom to post articles in any format you like, and any time you want. You don’t have to wait for the blog owner’s approval before your post can go live. If you have a blog for your business, you can promote your products and services in its articles. You can write anything you like to build a good brand image. You can even add adverts of your products to your blog posts.
The Importance of Designing a Blog
That’s why the importance of being able to design a blog is on the rise. If you need to hire a web developer to design your blog, you would have to wait until your blog template is ready, and also spend a substantial amount of money to pay the developer. But if you know how to design a blog yourself, you will not only save your time but also save a lot of cost. Thanks to the website building tools available these days, it is now possible for you to design a blog by yourself.
These website building tools or platforms come with ready-made templates that serve as blog designs. All you need to do is choose the one that suits your needs and tastes the most, and start keying in the basic pieces of information to get your blog ready. After that, you just need to keep publishing your articles on your blog.
A Recommended Blog Website Building Platform
One easy-to-use platform you can use to design a blog website is Strikingly. Strikingly has templates available for creating different types of websites, such as an online store, a blog, a website to showcase your services, an event website, a personal brand website, or a portfolio website.
Image taken from Strikingly
Under the category of blog templates, you will find sample designs of blog websites built by Strikingly users. Our users are neither web developers nor website designers. They simply select a website template and use it to develop a website on their own, without having to write a single line of code. If they have any queries regarding how to design a blog website, they contact our customer service team through our live chat support.
Image taken from Strikingly
8 Tips to Design a Blog Using a Tool Like Strikingly
Here are 8 tips that will help you design a blog in a way that you’ll be able to convert your readers into subscribers, and perhaps even customers, in the long run. These blog designing tips are easy to apply because they do not require you to know any programming language.
1. Match the Color Theme With Your Brand
Once you select your blog template, you can start changing and adjusting the colors of your blog’s home page, using the left panel on the Strikingly editor. Select colors that go well with your brand and logo. Your color theme should be among the first few things you decide on when you design a blog.
The simpler you keep the background, the easier it would be for your readers to read the text. Multi-colored and animated backgrounds don’t go well with blogs. Try to keep it plain and simple so that your landing page is easy on the eyes of the visitors. You can use light animations on your article thumbnails though.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
2. Make an Appealing Header
Your blog header will be among the first few places your visitors' eyes would go. That’s why it is important to pay attention to it when you design a blog. Make sure you have an appealing header. It should be neatly aligned with a clear brand logo in a corner or in the middle. You can place a banner ad on the header if you wish to promote another website or product there. Be sure to have your brand or website name written clearly on the header. This will serve as your blog name. You do not necessarily need to have a registered company for running a blog, but if you are starting a blog for your company or brand, then it’s best to have the name on the header.
- Create a Clear and Concise Menu Bar
The menu bar guides customers where to go, so the items on it should be neatly written. The menu of a blog website usually has the different categories your articles are about. There is also one ‘Contact’ button on the menu, which directs to your contact page. It is important that the contact page provide a means to your readers to get in touch with you if needed. You can add a contact form on your contact page, which will sort of automate the mechanism of your readers contacting you via email.
Don’t forget to include a brief information about yourself and/or your company too. This can be done by placing another item called ‘About’ on the menu bar. However, if you want to keep it simpler and create a one-page blog website, you can write a brief about yourself on the blog’s footer instead.
There are different ways to design a blog, and you need to go with whichever way suits you best.
4. Give Sufficient Information on the Footer
When you are designing a blog and want to keep it as simple as possible, the footer is the place where you can enter most of the information. This will save you from having to add separate pages for adding different information, such as your contact details, something about your brand, your affiliated blogs (if any), your terms and policies, and even your subscription form.
The best thing about the footer is it stays at the bottom of your website, whichever web page your site visitor is on. Anything that you add on your footer can be read and accessed from any of your web pages.
So when you design a blog, be sure to spend some time designing your footer.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
5. Use a Combination of Text and Images
Even though blog articles are written in text form, bloggers increasingly make use of images and illustrations to explain what they write in blog posts. If you want to design a blog that’s both appealing and catchy, choose a template that allows you to add a thumbnail image for each of your blog articles. Thumbnails make your blog links entice the visitors to open and read the article.
You can also use other images on your blog home page and your logo is one of them. If you write anything to describe your company culture, you can add some photos to show your workplace and staff. The more you use images in designing a blog, the more resourceful it will appear.
6. Provide Adequate Spacing
Having adequate spacing between your blog website content is important to make it look neat. Spacing also makes it easier for your blog design to be responsive. When a reader opens your blog from a smaller device, the text and images should not start overlapping or crashing into each other.
When you design a blog, adjust the spacing properly between all content elements. Adequate spacing is needed not only in the text but also in the contents of your header and footer. Good spacing makes your blog look more organized and easily readable.
7. Integrate the Blog With Social Media
If you are running or designing a blog, it is best to have social media pages as well where you share your blog articles. This will help you drive more traffic to your blog. You can integrate your social media pages with your blog by inserting social media icons on a section of your blog. This can be done either on the footer, or on some other spot on the side of the blog home page.
You can also insert social media sharing buttons at the bottom of each of your blog articles. This enables your readers to share your blog posts on their social media profiles if they like what they read. This is a means of doing social media marketing for your blog.
Social media integration is an integral step to effectively design a blog.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
8. Don’t Forget a Subscription Form
One of the most important elements in designing a blog is a subscription form. You can add a simple form to your blog, asking your site visitors to fill in their name and email address. Then you can use this email or subscribers list to send out newsletters regularly.
These newsletters can be a compilation of your latest blog articles, added to the newsletter as article links. This helps in keeping your readers reminded about your writings, so that they keep visiting your blog by clicking on the links.
If you apply these blog designing tips, you will be able to not only come up with a good-looking blog but also get traction to it as soon as you launch it. To start designing a blog for your business, sign up for your free account on Strikingly today.
