When you design a blog, you expect to have lots of traffic on your website, and also plan to make money from it. But, what if you fail in both?
A common misconception among the majority of bloggers is that publishing quality content will definitely drive visitors to their blogs but it isn’t the case. There is a dire need to understand that blogging isn’t just about writing because designing also plays a vital role in the success of every blog and website. A blog must be designed in an impressive manner adorned with marketing tactics and eye-catching designs. There are several issues that exist in a majority of blog posts, and these mistakes are repeated regularly even by the experienced bloggers. We have highlighted here some of the most common blunders that can actually ruin your BLOGS.
1: Lack of Search Bar
Thanks to the various search engines, particularly Google and Ask.com, now every other person wants a quick search bar on every website to search a particular content on the site. So, if your website or blog lacks a search option, most probably this will annoy your readers especially when they are looking for particular topics to read but can’t find because of being unable to run search.
2: Messy Layout
Adding colorful icons, widgets, and graphical contents on your blog do appear attractive only when these are arranged in a proper manner. While inserting these aids, make sure that they do not overlap or supersede the text; otherwise the layout will appear like a clutter distracting your readers.
3: Lack of Graphics
While trying to avoid messy outlook, keep this in mind that a typical blog with no graphical content will most probably fail to gain visitors' attention. Therefore, while designing your blog, try to choose a template which is fully compatible with graphical images so as to decorate your blog in an eye-catching way.
4: Unnecessary Colors
The color scheme of your blog plays a key role in branding. Therefore, always choose such color schemes that are fully compatible with your topic. Avoid making it unnecessarily colorful; your readers aren’t interested in any ‘painting’ rather in the details you have given in your posts.
5: Too Many Pop-Ups
Adding ads on your blogs is definitely a great strategy for financial benefit, but make sure these ads do not annoy your readers! Try avoiding pop-up windows as they seriously have a negative impact on the visitor. Even if you use pop-ups, you need to keenly monitor how many views it gets.
6: Improper Typography
No matter how good your work is, it won’t be useful if it has typography related issues. Using unique and stylistic fonts for your blog may look creative, but if the text is indecipherable, all your efforts will go in vain. Hence, it is better to use such fonts that are not just creative but also legible.
7: Excessive Widgets and Links
Another common blunder that bloggers do (including those from professional firms) is placing too many widgets, toolbars, or links to their previously published contents in anticipation that it will be viewed again. Promoting your old contents is good, but having too many clickable items in the middle of your content seems odd. Try arranging all these links in sidebars, particularly if you are regularly posting new contents.
8: Ignoring Email Subscriptions
Once you are done with an impressive blog, how will others know about it? Email marketing is an easy strategy for this purpose, but majority of bloggers forget about it. Later on, they complain about lower traffic flow! Thus, it is highly recommended to ensure sending newsletters and other promotional emails to the target audience by introducing free subscription to the visitors. You may add interactive pop-ups to remind the reader about subscription.
9: Missing Social Media Buttons
When you have a worth-reading blog ready, why not let others share it in their circle? Lacking social media sharing buttons is the biggest reason of organic sharing of your blogs on social networks. Thus, never forget to include social media sharing links and buttons for quick sharing by the readers.
10: Lacking Blogger’s Details
Missing details about the blogger is yet another common problem. To ensure your reliability, always add details about your firm or brand as a “about us” option, and also give a brief introduction of the bloggers and writers to give a personalized look.