El Valle de Anton Panama
(Updated 7/3/2021)
Improving blog user experience often makes the difference between a casual visitor and loyal follower.
Even skilled content creators struggle to grow a blogging community if they come up short in the UX department.
Every blogger clings to various blind spots concerning glaring blog user experience errors. For example, I recently added a dependable search bar to my blog. I used Google’s search feature prior but suspect programming bugs caused loading errors and affected my blog speed too. After receiving feedback and getting clear I added the search bar as the most prominent widget on my sidebar. Google seems to appreciate the change, too; my page 1 results jumped recently.
Enhancing your user experience offers glowing benefit benefits including:
- increased time readers spend onsite
- an increase in traffic as readers click from post to post and page to page
- an increase in profits as readers gradually see you in a more credible light in proportion to how much time readers spend onsite
Success grows by making blog followers happy. However, making readers unhappy accelerates your struggles. Observe your blog in its current state. Do you struggle blogging-wise? Walk through your blog from the perspective of a 3rd party to find issues with your user experience.
Don’t worry; changing the user experience for blog readers is a simple process. One financial investment here, a few formatting changes there and your readers will be happier.
Business titan Jeff Bezos acquired massive wealth by designing Amazon into perhaps the ultimate user experience. Imagine a website that gives you what you want as quickly and easily as possible. Even less sophisticated online users have few problems buying anything on Amazon because the UX is elite among online stores. Read user reviews – if you want to – then buy with 1 quick, easy click.
Keep Amazon in mind as you improve the experience for your blog readers. Even though bloggers follow a different business model than Amazon every blogger has room to create a more seamless UX.
Use these 10 tips to improve blog user experience.
1: Upgrade Your Theme
Upgrade your theme to create an appealing experience for your readers.
Themes tend to get stale after a while. Perhaps you cling to an old theme for some romantic attachment.
A theme upgrade may be in order for you.
Think clean, simple, lightweight, mobile responsive, and align it with your blogging brand.
Ubud, Bali
Give your loyal readers an entertaining, visually-appealing experience. Align with your brand. Make it easy for followers to get what they want through your blog design.
Every blogger needs a theme upgrade from time to time to be current, to recharge their brand and to give readers a fresh perspective.
2: Write Short Paragraphs
Readers like to follow snippet-sized pieces of content for easier scanning and reading.
Write short, concise paragraphs to please your visitors. Tighten your writing. Chop up longish paragraphs to make it easy for followers to digest blog content.
Imagine readers following the movement of a typewriter. Left to right. PING. Next line.
Go vertical. Think up-down.
Practice writing short, curt paragraphs to make this writing style a habit.
3: Use Headers
Headers break up blog posts.
Breaking up blog posts makes your blog easier to scan.
Use H2 and H3 headers to give a sense of flow to your blog posts. Employing blog header fonts gives readers a chance to breathe. Headers also arrest attention spans to stress important points. Observe the 10 numbered headers for this post. Followers know each H2 header beside a number reflects the content promised through the blog post title.
4: Invest in a CDN
Invest money in a CDN.
A CDN is a content delivery network. Imagine server clusters sitting in different locations delivering your blog content like:
- videos
- images
- HTML pages
to your blog. A CDN basically frees up your blog server resources to ensure readers experience a quick-loading blog.
Speed has always been a big factor for blog readers as well as Google but the current level of technological advancement in society makes site speed a critical factor in enhancing a blog UX. If readers cannot read your blog posts quickly and easily most will leave your blog just as quickly and easily.
Invest in a CDN for a quick-loading blog and happy blogging readership.
5: Upgrade Your Comment System
Assess your current comment system.
Nai Harn Beach, Phuket, Thailand
Can readers easily share their thoughts to allow their voice to be heard?
Consider upgrading your blog comment system to leave behind:
- commenting bugs
- painfully slow load times as readers wait for comments to go through after clicking the publish button
- sneaky spam dancing around filters
I removed all No Follow links from comments to reduce my spam by 90%. Removing links guaranteed every legit commentor on Blogging From Paradise desires to genuinely be a part of our community without wanting a backlink or anything else in return.
Upgrade comments to foster a sense of closeness among your readership. Make your blog a two-way street for both you and your loyal readers to enhance your UX.
6: Post Images Liberally
Post images liberally throughout your blog to allow readers to rest their weary minds.
People think in terms of images. Imagining images as you read words taxes even diligent readers. Pictures do leg work for readers by making it easy to imagine the picture.
Pictures also create flow throughout blog content. Readers enjoy seeing pictures to break up blog post text.
Use multiple images for every blog post you publish. Be generous. Improve your user experience by making your blog easy on reader eyes.
7: Tidy Up Your Sidebar
Tight, sweet and neat; consider this your blog sidebar holy trinity.
Remove sidebar bloat. Trim fat by removing non-essential widgets. Leave only what enhances your blog.
Review each sidebar widget carefully. Demand that every widget improves your user experience.
Consider trimming down before adding anything to your sidebar. Set up a blog header menu to direct readers to business pages, bio pages and contact pages. Be efficient in allocating sidebar real estate. Keep your sidebar tidy to focus readers predominantly on your blog content.
8: Go Heavy on White Space
White space makes your content pop.
Giving readers ample white space creates an “easy on the eyes” experience.
Giving readers little white space creates a “I want to tear out my eyes” assault on the senses.
Use plenty of white space. Enhance your blog content by creating a strong sense of contrast between text, images and white space.
9: Ask a Non-Blogger to Poke Around Your Blog
Bloggers often impress meme’s on fellow bloggers.
Pro bloggers in particular become so fixed in their blogging perspective that they miss obvious user experience errors easily spotted by people who do not blog.
Savusavu Bay, Fiji
Non-bloggers think outside of the blogging box by *not* thinking like a blogger. Pro bloggers often parrot the piece of advice to build an email list. But after plastering your opt-in form on your sidebar as the sole widget, a person who never blogged asks why you don’t have your eBooks, disclaimers and your smiling headshot on the sidebar?
People who do not know how to blog have not been cursed by sometimes narrowing thinking schools of blogging thought greatly damaging user experience. Ask a non-blogger to poke around your blog for 20 minutes. Listen to their feedback honestly. Observe how free thinkers see what you forgot to see in your rigid blogging mind.
Enhance your UX by asking for feedback from someone who knows nothing about blogging but everything about getting what they want quickly and easily.
Enhance your UX by asking for feedback from someone who knows nothing about blogging but everything about getting what they want quickly and easily.Click To Tweet
10: Do Regular UX Audits
Audit your blog for user experience every 3-6 months to be current.
Spot potential changes evolving after your personal desires get the best of you.
I refused to add a search bar to my blog because I wanted readers to buy my eBooks as solutions versus visiting other posts on my blog. Needless to say, this ego-drunk experiment did not work out well. Observing my sidebar during an audit revealed this UX weakness. I added a search bar as my most prominent widget and never looked back.
Review your blog regularly to spot user experience issues. Adjust accordingly to make your followers happy.
Conclusion
Put your ego to the side to do user experience audits honestly.
Every blogger turns a blind eye to at least a few aspects of their blog requiring some updates.
Patiently follow each one of these tips. Put yourself in the shoes of a blog follower.
Making minimal time, energy and financial investments can do wonders for your reader user experience.
