Your blog’s design is the first thing someone would notice when they come to your site. It needs to look clean and professional to establish credibility and trust.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner or a professional blogger. A better impression can even turn your readers into subscribers.
Table Of Contents
How to make your blog look professional
Choose the right WordPress theme
If your blog is on WordPress like mine is, selecting the right theme is of the utmost importance. But which is the right WordPress theme?
I know it can be a bit overwhelming to see so many themes available, I have been in this position too. I tried out some themes and read about basic designing tips and I have learned the following things.
For instance, white space on a site is comforting to the eyes. It can get tempting to play with colours but the background colour should remain white.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the theme should be responsive. Most of the readers nowadays are reading on their smartphone devices.
If your blog is not responsive, it will look out of place on the mobile screen. Responsiveness is a feature that you can’t do without.
Also Read: How Many WordPress Plugins Should You Use?
Mobile users generate 52% of the total internet traffic.
Better not lose on that 52%, right?
There are premium themes as well, in case you don’t find the one in the free ones. Some of the sites that sell WordPress themes are Elegant Themes, WooThemes, WPZoom, and StudioPress.
Make your blog load faster
Nobody likes a site that takes forever to load. Forever lasts only 5-6 seconds these days. This is because good quality internet speed is more easily available.
How to make sure that your blog loads fast enough? Check your blog’s speed and performance on GTMetrix. To reduce the load time, remove any unused plugins, media and widgets.
Optimize the images you use on your blog. You can install the Smush plugin to help you with optimizing images. It resizes every image you upload by compressing it.
The quality of the theme and your hosting server affect the loading speed of your blog. The loading speed also affects how well your blog will rank in search engine results.
A faster loading post has better chances of ranking higher.
Stay clear of grammatical errors
Quality of the language used in the post makes a huge difference. You don’t have to use complex words to show that you’re knowledgeable about the topic.
Write in a conversational tone and language that you would use while talking to a friend. Make sure not to make grammatical errors and typos in spellings.
They can reduce the trust quotient of your content. It makes it look like you didn’t pay enough attention to developing this piece of content. All the bloggers out there can’t afford a proofreader.
Grammarly is the answer to your prayers. It is an excellent tool that points out errors and tells you the tone of the content you typed. There is both a paid version and a free version available.
Install the Grammarly extension in your browser and it will automatically work in your blog post editor.
There is a Hemmingway App that helps improve the readability of your text. But you will have to type in the app itself.
Format your blog posts with a defined structure
Most of the readers online skim through content. Readers won’t read each line of your content.
It is a good writing habit to use headings in your blog posts. Proper headings can help the reader skip to the part they are most interested in.
Headings should be concise and clear. They should point out what the following paragraphs are about in the quickest way.
Do not mix heading levels. H2 comes before H3. The higher the number, the smaller the heading is. When it comes to paragraphs, stick to 2-4 sentences. Shorter paragraphs are easier to read and look better too.
I recommend having a table of contents in your blog post. It is a shortcut for people to see what is coming ahead. They can navigate to the heading which interests them.
There is a plugin available on WordPress by the name Easy Table of Contents. Here is how you can install and apply it. It will make your blog look more professional.
Use high-quality images in the posts
The images you use in your blog post must relate to the content and be of good quality.
It is easier to keep visual information in the form of pictures as compared to text. Images also allow people to share the post on their social media profiles. Social media is a very effective tool in getting more views on your blog. There are some unconventional ways to promote your blog on social media, check them out here.
You can also design your own infographics. Infographics have proven to be effective in grabbing eyeballs. They explain the topic in-depth using bullet points and illustrations.
If you are wondering where you can find good imagery, read this post where I have shared my recommendations.
For creating your own infographic, you can use Canva. I use Canva to design my featured images and various social media posts. With good imagery, you can get more traffic from image search engines.
Readers can also pin them and you’ll generate traffic from Pinterest. If you are new to Pinterest, read this tutorial to learn how to use Pinterest for your blog.
Choose font and colours wisely
Do not use more than two types of font on your blog. Same goes for colour. It can make the blog look a bit childish. Georgia and Helvetica are one of the most easily read fonts.
Try to select a font which has alphabets which can be clearly distinguished. Cursive stylish fonts don’t work well.
Fonts that I recommend using are Montserrat, Pluto Sans, Tisa, Droid Sans and Playfair Display.
Use a different font for your headings, paragraphs and one for your logo.
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