Blog Tipz

Going about a new blog design or a redesign of your current theme can be a hard thing to do, especially if you haven’t changed it in some time and people don’t really see any problem with it. Due to certain circumstances, you need to change it. Perhaps you need more space to sell advertising, place your links, or you personally don’t like elements of the theme.

You need a good approach to redesigning your site, and this can be difficult to say the very least. It usually takes a lot of planning, drafting, and revisions during these stages before you can even begin to feel comfortable about the work that you will be hitting the “publish” button for.

The biggest mistake in blog design is that evolution is faced with negative criticisms, which make you think twice about design, which could be perfectly appealing to you, but your visitors and readers absolutely detest.

Branding Your Site and Image

Even though you might be trying to accomplish just a very simple branding change, visitors might react negatively and this could cause problems – they will tell others that the new image isn’t good, and your visitor count will go down over time until you can find a “fix” for it. Now, this happens with all changes. It is human nature to notify others of change, but you can’t have too much negative publicity or your entire image will decrease.

Your logo says the most about your blog and its purpose. If it doesn’t, then you have a problem.

Changes in your logo might be simple, but this is one of the most iconic images of what you, the author, and the blog represent.

The Theme Design

Much like the logo aforementioned, your design must be good or it won’t be accepted by your visitors and people who might be looking to purchasing something from you. In this case, it would be a product (eBook, regular book, another digital product, or advertising). You have to have something that is appealing or you won’t be able to get any conversions on your efforts.

Great examples of blog design disasters can be seen all the time. Within a week of the announcement, conversion to the new theme, and initial reaction, the owner of the site or designer reverts partially back to the old design or makes moderate to major changes to the new design.

You want to create something that is appealing for everyone, which is extremely difficult by any standards.

Consequences of Bad Design

There are a number of things that will happen if you release a theme ahead of time or without the proper “approval” by your designer and yourself.

1. Your visitors will react in a way that indicates that they do not like the new theme or will not be able to adjust to it over time – they will probably leave comments, post their thoughts on other blogs, or simply stop doing what they were previously doing.
2. Your sales though the sidebar and other places will decrease, as many advertisers follow what visitors are saying through other sites. Remember, your image and perception by other people is critical.
3. Your bounce rate will go up, indicating that people don’t know how to navigate through your site, nor are they as interested in what you have to say. Now, this isn’t always the case, but your design could have little to do with bounce rate, instead the visitors’ interests could be changing over time.
4. Time (and often money) is spent on a redesign, and if it is bad, you could have to hire a new designer or scrap the plans altogether, starting fresh.
5. Things probably won’t work, at least initially. One of the biggest problems with blog design might be the fact that you want a new visual look, but you now have to re-add all links, content, and images back into the sidebars. Using a “parent theme” could solve some of these problems, but not all the time, especially with a completely redesigned layout and more columns.

Conclusion

Don’t take it personally when a design just doesn’t work. It happens to everyone. For the most part, the design that you choose should be indicative of you, the owner of the blog, rather than the people who just stop by to read what you have to say.

The biggest part of designing a bad theme is how you react to what people say. If you change for the better, you can solve many identity crises, while sticking with the poor design choices could leave to a brand or identity problem down the road.