You'll want to make it easy and comfortable for your readers to use your blog, because only then will they feel comfortable with you as an authority on your subject, and a trusted source in your niche. With that in mind, here are 10 easy things you can do to make your blog more usable.
Making your Blog Usable
- 1. "Come Out" - provide a biography section.
- This biography should be the equivalent of a more typical "about us" page. Blogging has typically been the domain of the anonymous (or at least a geeky nickname) From a readers point of view trusting an anonymous person can be mighty difficult. Do be honest in your biography; keep it short and friendly and not too technical.
Use an author photo; put a human face to your "voice". Readers will be more willing to accept you as an authority on your subject. If you are the sole contributor to your blog and you don't want to adorn every post or article with your face then consider adding it to your biography section only.
- 2. Article Titles.. Large and Clear
- Use a large, clear, legible, font - Big is In! in the design world so it's never been easier to get your message across boldly.
Use your titles well, if they're big then make sure they also explain the article well. Treat them as if they were another bit of mini content!
Some examples :
The Washington Post uses Blog titles well, both large font and there's no doubt what the article is about.
The first image on the right (or above) shows Garret Dimons clever use of titles, not only are the main ones very big and clear, he also graduates the size of sub-headings which has the effect of drawing the readers eye further down the page, subtly pointing out that there is still some interesting content to follow.
The second image (right), belongs to Airbag Industries. I would like to point out that I personally love the design of this site and this is not a complaint in any way, it is only used here to illustrate that one word titles would just not cut it for professional blogs! Look at the insert where I have "photoshopped in" (ok maybe not very nicely) the "recent posts" list which was in the sidebar. That would not exactly be searchable, informative or enticing for professional blog purposes!
- 3. Using links in posts
- When using link text in your post make it clear where you are inviting the user to visit. Either in the link text itself or in the title attribute, preferably both!
.. visual browsers frequently display the title as a "tool tip" (a short message that appears when the pointing device pauses over an object). Audio user agents may speak the title information in a similar context. For example, setting the attribute on a link allows user agents (visual and non-visual) to tell users about the nature of the linked resource
The title attribute will appear as a "tooltip" once link is hovered to aid the text link explanation. Users will be less likely to follow a link that says "Click here" or "someone said". Users who are not familiar with personal blogs just do not trust vague links yet.
- 4. Site Search and Archives
- Archives by week, month, year etc is a big no-no on a professional blog!
Imagine when you have over 100-200 entries, and that you're still trying to promote each one, what your archive list might look like. While this may be fine for a personal blog (journal), it's just not user friendly if a reader is looking for one of your products.
The same applies to calendars, if you're running this as a professional blog, then a calendar is only useful as eye candy, your entries may very well have a date on them, but hopefully you want some of them to remain "eternal".
Instead consider archiving by title, in date order, so it's easily "skim read" by your readers, and encourage a site search as well, make your search box prominent on the archive page.
You can also use the blog software plugins/modules to produce menus and lists like :
- "most read" ~ which will keep the popular articles current and fresh
- "recent comments/posts" ~ this shows where the action is and what everyone else is talking about, it will lead a new reader to exactly where everyone else is making them feel very welcome
- self-tag great articles ~ (after the fact) so they land in their own category which you can generate a "notable" list from
- Have a site search, preferably on full text
- 5. Publish regularly ~ regular readers like to "connect"
- Every day, every 2/3 days, whatever suits best, your readers will get used to you and will instinctively check your blog or their feed with regularity too. If you only publish irregularly readers will also check your feed irregularly or not at all!
Remember though if just starting out don't get too carried away and be inclined to publish 3-4 articles a day in a mad frenzy because keeping up that pace may be unattainable.
If you do have lots to add to a new blog consider backdating some of it so blog looks "full at start". And if you have lots of good ideas at once, then hold some back for a time when it's not so easy
- 6. TAG TAG TAG, Tag everything into categories
- One research study has shown that Categories are still misunderstood by the majority of non regular blog readers, however the study also stated that these same people on reading blogs didn't actually realise they were on a blog!
So with that in mind and the fact that Taxonomy is just so right ~ I vote use those tags!.
Even if your readers don't understand what the taxonomy tags at the top or bottom of the posts mean, a menu can be generated from them, and placed alongside traditional navigation, like here at Performancing ~ this looks and feels more like a traditional environment. Adding to the comfort level of your new readers
For regular blog readers you should make it easy for them to digg, del.icio.us, furl etc. Especially if you have a tech savvy audience
- 7. A picture equals a thousand words
- Use a picture to augment your articles, if promoting a product make sure the picture is linked. It lightens the page to have some images rather than pure text, even a purely technical blog can use charts etc..
- 8. Explain things Clearly ~ don't assume your audience is familiar with blogs
- Remember that some newer readers of blogs are still mystified by them, so if you are attracting new readers to your professional blog because of all the tips you've learned, you should realise that they may well be wary of participating ~ which means they be wary of clicking on anything, ads included.
Explain things like your comment system very clearly, it may seem obvious to you or regular blog readers, but it won't add anything to the comfort factor of your new reader if they don't know what do or have questions. They may just go away feeling uncomfortable.
e.g Will my email address be shown in public?, Will my post go on hold awaiting moderation? Will my post appear instantly or am I talking to the site owner directly? ~ all points to consider depending on your targetted audience
Consider adding a paragraph to your biography/contact page explaining some of the above and then providing a "need more help" link to it under your comments, that way regular readers needn't see the explanation at all times.
- 9. Whitespace ~ keep the page readable
- read Nick's previous article on "White Space". I won't go in depth but can't emphasis it enough, it is very important, it makes it easier on the eye to scan cross columns, making things less confusing for those new readers who may just get disorientated if there's too much clutter.
Line-height too, increase the space between the lines of your text to aid legibility, there no need to scrunch things up, scrollbars are accepted these days.
It's never been easier to have so much whitespace, the latest design trend of whitespace and large titles suggest we are going back to basics.
- 10. Cut down on the clutter!
- Buttons, glory badges, blogrolls etc, may be considered cool or trendy and some are indeed invaluable.. but they are just for technical (in the case of buttons) or personal(in the case of blogrolls) use. They mostly now just distract when used in a professional environment.
If your readers already know how to add a feed they'll know to follow your one feed information link. This link should lead to a feed information page, where, of course. you should link to a "What is RSS anyway explanation" for the benefit of those who would like to find out about it. If you help a new reader now they become a loyal customer soon
Same with the buttons if you must have lots of them, have a separate page listing all the buttons you like, and explanations about them to encourage those new readers not be intimidated
Although it's the same again with blogrolls, your regular readers may very well like to see who you like or recommend, and your newer ones may get nosy eventually. If the list gets longer than 8-10, it's worth considering having a random list of a few in your sidebar with a link to separate page containing the rest.
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This started out as a "quick" post, but it quickly grew into an entity where each point could probably be expanded on! I will likely expand on theses points and/or new ones brought up in comments in the future.
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