The Perfect Blog Post Simpler Is Better - CoSchedule Blog

The Perfect Blog Post Simpler Is Better Blog I have designed my fair share of blog themes from top to bottom, and while I have allowed myself to experiment some, I usually find that there is almost a formula for success. This doesnt mean that there are a bunch of hard and fast rules. It just means that successful blogs usually look a certain way for a reason. In art school, I was taught that I needed to learn the rules of art before I was allowed to break them. The same goes for many things in life.  Once you understand the rules, it will up to you to implement them, and break them, as you see fit. Here are a few of the rules for blog design that I have adopted over the years. Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively.  Ã¢â‚¬â€¢ Dalai Lama XIVLess Is Really More Often, we equate working on our blog with installing a new widget on our sidebar. Trust me, your sidebar doesnt need another widget. If fact, it probably needs less. What you really need is a blog that works with your goals, and converts on your call-to-action. Sounds simple, but how do we get there? Our blog design must serve our content well. Your layout should make your content easy to read and experience. 100% of our blog design needs to be about the  content that it is serving. A great blog design focuses on a single call to action. What do you want the reader to do when they come to your blog? You could pick seven different things. Pick one. With that, I would like to introduce the perfect blog post. Download a PDF copy of this diagram to use as you blog. The Content The content area of your blog should be the largest and most prominent. Your content is why your readers are here, and it should be: Easy To Read Use large, easy-to-read fonts with extra padding around the post and a fair amount of white space. Giving your content some breathing room will go a long way in making the post more readable. Contain Inline Call-To-Actions I like to include at least a few inline call-to-actions in each post. Prompting the reader to tweet a quote or a callout is easier than getting them to share a post at the end. To do this, we made our own custom plugin which we later  started giving away. Minimize Meta Data I usually try to keep meta-data to a minimum. When designing a blog, the author, category, and date information is up for debate. You will need to consider carefully your need for them. Keep it to the bare minimum. Keep Sharing Buttons To A Minimum I have personally come to believe that sharing buttons should be simple, minimal, and usually at the bottom of the post. After all, the post is about your content, not share buttons. Many blogs believe that more sharing buttons will equal more sharing, but that is rarely the case. The Sidebar The sidebar of your blog is becoming less and less important every day. You should evaluate it carefully, and it might be the first place where you start breaking some of the rules. Placement. Whether you place your sidebar on the left or right doesnt matter, though the right side is a bit more traditional for a blog. Generally speaking, putting things where the user expects them to be is a good thing. No Content. Less is more, especially when it comes to the sidebar. Medium has popularized the no-sidebar blog post, and it works. In general, go for as little as you can stand to have in the sidebar. Rethink The Standbys. I used to believe that a list of categories and recent blog posts belonged on every sidebar. Once I dug into my analytics data, I discovered that these items were rarely used. They may not be so important, after all. Search? Maybe. Usually, I end up including a search box somewhere on my blog, but only because I so often use it myself. This element may or may not be important for you. Dont Buy Ads On Your Own Blog. You may be tempted to fill your sidebar with a link to every important part of your site. Dont. I never take out ads on my own blog, and you shouldnt either. The Call to Action One of the reasons that I find all of this so important is that with social sharing and search engines, our blog is often  the first thing that our readers or future customers will see. In essence, your blog is your homepage. It  is not only important to make a good first impression, but it is also important to make sure that you are not asking too much of them on their first visit. I often think about a website visitor in terms of a dating relationship. If youve just met someone for the first time, you dont ask them to marry you. You have to get to know them first. The same goes for blog visitors. What is the most reasonable thing that we can ask of them? Are you trying to get them to the altar when you need to  get to know them better?