What You Need in a Killer Website Design

You’re all set up with your new website and you’ve been blogging away, however, your traffic has stalled and you’re wondering why you’re not getting sponsored post opportunities. You have a high bounce rate and  you’re wondering why your readers aren’t sticking around. Do you have a killer website design?

No? You’ve put all this effort in your content, however, how are you presenting this content to your readers? Are you slabbing it on top of a garbage lid or do you have it style onto a perfectly plated dish? This does make a difference. I cannot read your blog posts if you have small text, light colored links or illegible script fonts. It will take too much work and I’m going to click away.

What do you need for a killer website design?

A branded logo

I don’t care if you can’t afford a professional logo design, head on over to Picmonkey or Canva and get something other than the default text for your blog and tagline. Get creative and see what you can do in there. Study some of your favorite blogs, what do you like about their design, what do you dislike, create something that you can proudly show off when people come to your site.

If you have to artistic ability, hire someone to do it, but your header is the first thing readers see when the go to a new blog, it conveys the feel and mood of the content and gives your first impression right there in less than two seconds. Make an impression.

Easy navigation

If I come to your blog and it is a hot mess, I’m not sticking around, what are the major topics that you write about? Can those be easily found within one or two clicks from your  menu? Is there a method to your organization of menu items? Please tell me you have a search bar somewhere on your site, either in your header or sidebar where I can easily search for my favorite recipe or craft. I’m not going to look at your tag cloud to search for one post, nor will I search through your archives for it either, it’ll take too long and then I’m out of there.

Organized posts

If you write about several different topics, how about showcasing them on your homepage. Please don’t display full posts on your homepage, I don’t want to keeps scrolling down your page to find the next post. Stick to posts excerpts with the featured image displayed to keep things neatly laid out and easy to find.

Consistent images

If you keep to a consistent image style using similar fonts or layout, these will help your images get noticed on Pinterest and fans will be more likely to click on your pins. This keeps your branding consistent and lets the world know that these images belong to your blog so these articles must rock.

Color coordination

Head on over to design seeds or colour lovers and choose a coherent color scheme for your blog, you can determine their hex codes using the Colorzilla chrome extension. Click on the eyedropper, and then click on a color that you’d like to grab the hex code for, it will automatically copy the code and you can plop it into Photoshop or Picmonkey to use in your design. Ta da, you’re a professional designer now, well not really, but at least it doesn’t look like you just tried 4 different color combinations just because you liked all of those colors, it doesn’t meant they should all go together.

Subtlety is key here. You need at least 3 or 4 colors. One of them can be an accent color, it doesn’t mean you have to go with hot pink everywhere but use it as your link hover color or in your footer to add a dash of color without overwhelming your readers eyes.

About me graphic

If I’m reading an awesome blog post, I want to know about the blogger, do you have a picture of yourself on your blog. You know, your about page is one of the most visited pages on your site. Don’t do yourself a disservice by hiding behind the computer, get to know your readers and connect with them by adding a picture of yourself to your site.

Can I connect with you?

Do you have a prominent email subscription box and social media icons displayed on your site. I want social proof that this is an awesome blog to read so I want to check out your social media numbers to see if others think so.

If your blog encompasses all of these, you are rocking and well on your way to a killer website design. If you need some help, let me know and we can chat.

Have you check out the other tips in my series: Best Ways to Grow Your Blog.