The main thing that you should be focusing on when you are designing your blog's layout is to give your visitors a great first impression. The first look of your blog from visitor's perspective is an extremely important factor that determines if the visitor will continue to read, or hit the close button. it is also a key factor that gets your website bookmarked. Here's a few important facts you should know about people surfing on the Internet:

• People do not like excessive use of advertisements
• People do not like to wait for a long time for a website to load (too many ads, pointless widgets, large picture files)
• People do not like seeing things that don't display properly
• People do not like to guess where to click to find the information they are looking for
• People do not like having the need to look really close to be able to see things
• People do not like colors that hurt their eyes
• People do not like auto-playing audio
• People do not like pop-ups

Main Components of a Blog Every blog has the following sections - Header, Footer, Sidebars, Navigation area, and of course, Content area.

Navigation

The navigation section is where your viewers look first to find what they need. This is where they get the first glance of what your blog has to offer. Navigation, usually represented by a menu bar that is often located on the very top for most blogs, is the "table of content" of you blog if you picture your blog like a book. Here's a list of popular navigation items:

• Home (Blog main page)
• About
• Archive
• Contact
• Product or Services
• Advertise

Header

The header is where you place the logo and the title of your blog. Business slogan is often placed right underneath the business title, but displayed with smaller fonts. For many professional blogs, a short welcome message is often placed in the header as well.

Footer

The footer is located at the bottom of a page. It is common to put another set of navigation bar in the footer, with smaller fonts, along with copyright information. Other things such as "exchanged links list", "top commentators list", "recent comments list", and "categories list" are also commonly used in the footer.

Content

The content is where your posts are. Make sure that the titles are displayed in a larger font size compared to the post content.

Sidebars

Widgets or plugins get placed within the sidebars. The most important widget or plugin that you must have is the search feature. When hundreds of content added to your blog you have to make sure that your visitors can properly find what they want quickly. RSS icon is also highly recommended to have, either in the sidebar, or in the header. Other common widgets to have in the sidebars are:

• Categories
• Archive (often displayed in months)
• Latest Posts
• Latest Comments
• Social Network Widgets

While you are thinking about the design of your blog, just make sure that:

1. People can load your blog quickly
2. People can read your blog comfortably
3. People can navigate quickly through your blog

Additional Reading

• SEO Optimized your Blog: Write for Google or write for viewer?
• Download and Install WordPress All in One SEO Pack Plugin

Ask your friends to provide feedback on your blog's design

Perhaps the most efficient way to find out the pros and cons of your blog is to ask your friends to review your blog and provide feedback. This will give you a better idea of the design of your blog, from visitor's perspective.

Does your website have a RSS feed?

RSS feeds enable people to read your latest posts, with RSS readers, without actually visiting your website.

Your task:

• Read "The Importance of Branding"
• Read "The Importance of Logo in Branding"
• Read "Improve your Customer Service by improving the Quality of your Website"