When we think of a blog, the first thing that comes to mind is writing – naturally. A blog is about sharing knowledge with our words.
But what about our blog’s look-n-feel?
Awesome design combined with rock-solid content is what separates the pros from the field. This is why content teams have to use blog UX best practices.
Blog UX Best Practices – Taking Your Blog to the Next Level
Great blog UX means you’re hitting home on features that create user engagement. So what are these features?
So what are these features?
Because blog UX is all encompassing, these features fall under the content itself, but also what’s surrounded the content. Here’s a checklist you can reference.
Shorter is Better
Your readers love consuming content. But they’re also easily distracted. And you need to keep this in mind when writing posts.
So what’s the solution?
Shorter is better. This should be your mantra if you’re a content marketer using your blog to generate leads. Apply this idea to your sentences and paragraphs.
- Sentences: Keep them as short and punchy. Brevity is the name of the game.
- Paragraphs: The line break is your friend. Aim for paragraphs that are two – three sentences in length.
Have a look at how the Social Chefs blog does it. They keep paragraphs short and sentences even shorter. This keeps the reader’s mouse scrolling until the end of the post.
Headings and Subheadings
Be liberal with headings and subheadings. They break up your content and leave a topic trail for readers to follow.
Blog readers are most likely skimming your content. They’re looking for pieces of knowledge before moving on.
So again, play the game with this in mind. Use blog headings and subheadings when possible.
You can see this technique in action on the Pole Position Marketing Blog. Every unique idea features its own subheading. This transitions the reader thought process and makes their content easy to skim.
Images to Breakup Content
Splicing your blog with images is a UX necessity.
Images offer readers a visual break. Which is important when consuming on-screen content.
Consistency is what separates the pros from the amateurs.
- Use the same sizing across images
- When highlighting image aspects, use a branded color
- Use the alt img tags to help boost your blog’s SEO
The Online Optimism blog knows the importance of images in their posts. In this example, every subheading features its own image. This provides visuals which help readers understand ideas better.
White Space
White space leads to a clear and digestible message.
Blogs demand a lot of attention from site visitors. And good blog UX helps readers focus by de-cluttering the page. This is why you want to use of white space as much as possible.
Take a look at your blog post margins. What do you see? Is it busy? Use a lot of color / imagery? A lot of CTAs? These all distract your readers. Replace the distractions with white space.
Related Content
Give readers a reason to stay on your site.
Do this by providing relevant content to the blog they’re reading. Related content helps keep session times high and bounce rates low.
Related Content Pro Tip: where you place your related content widgets makes all the difference. Stick your list of relevant blogs either at the top or bottom of the page. The bottom of a post makes the most sense, considering the reader has finished reading content and is ready to move on.
Social Share Buttons
Social share buttons do two things for your blog:
- Provide added credibility
- Give readers a quick share outlet
Both of these factors lead to better blog UX. A social profile shows your company is active in the community and willing to share your knowledge and expertise.
It also saves readers time and effort when promoting your content. This is what UX is all about.
Navigation
Maintaining site navigation lets visitors move around your site with ease.
This gives new users a good experience when they hit your content for the first time.
A new user has no idea what your site’s about. They may have landed on your blog, like what they read, and what to know more about you.
Keep a subtle navigation bar at the top of your blog. The key here is subtle. It maintains a fine line between low distraction and quick access to your site.
Use Calls-to-Actions
When users come to your blog, there looking to learn. So you need to deliver ideas and solutions to build a relationship.
But after that, give your readers options to take the next step. This is when you can introduce a call-to-action.
CTAs supplement what users are reading with a springboard to action. Examples of calls to action include:
- Download buttons in your blog
- Pop-up CTAs
- Blog subscription email fields
- Native ads in your sidebar
With these CTAs, you can send traffic to your resource downloads, products page, or free tools page. But the key here is relevance. Your
Your blogs focus on certain ideas. So make sure your CTAs are logical. Send traffic to content that makes sense as the next step.
Use Best Practices to Engage Blog Visitors
When you think of UX, you think of providing visitors with an amazing experience. So why not apply this mentality to your blog – where your site visitors spend their time.
There are a ton of blog UX best practices for both content writers and designers to use. I’ve mentioned a few above – do you have any blog UX best practices we should add to the list? Let us know in the comments!
