There are so many different reasons why you would want to start a blog. Some do it for personal reasons while others have financial interests in mind. No matter the case, the great thing about blogging is that you can visit tutorial sites like HowToCreateABlog.org, get the blog running in a few minutes, make it look how you want it and then publish content. The problem is that in an attempt to make the blog as unique looking as possible you can end up with a blog that is not as functional as it should be.
Proper blog design is very important. There are different features that visitors now expect. This is why the features we mention below will always have to be present on a properly designed blog.
A Clear Website Navigation Bar
The navigation bar (commonly referred to as menu), is an absolute necessity. Even a small business blog needs to embrace a navigation that is object-base. The idea is to basically use it as a contents table. The user can so easily find the content type that is needed in just a few minutes.
A Search Bar
The people that visit a blog simply do not want to waste a lot of time in the event that they want to find specific content. That is why it is extremely important to have a search bar included in the design of the blog. Commonly, this is located in the upper right corner or at the very top of the sidebar. However, there is no exact rule to follow. What is really important is to always have a search bar that the visitor can easily find.
Popular Posts Highlighted
Every single blog has some posts that are more popular than others. This practically means that most of the visitors are going to want to read what is written. The best content present on a blog needs to be properly highlighted. When you use WordPress this is actually really simple. There are different plugins that automatically add the popular posts in the sidebar or at various other parts of the site. Make sure that the popular posts are highlighted in a proper way and that they are going to be visible. This will make people stay on your blog for a longer period of time.
Sharing Buttons
When blogs were initially launched they were seen as web 2.0 properties. This marked an evolution of websites. Now, we have social media as the most important part of online site promotion in so many cases. Because of this, having sharing buttons on blogs is basically a necessity. This helps the visitor to share when they find content that is valuable and of importance for their friends. Without the sharing buttons the readers will not be interested to share and you can miss out on so much free traffic that can appear.
In most cases the sharing buttons will be included at the end of a post but you can also use other configurations. Just make sure they are present and highly visible.