Your homepage is your blog’s first impression. It can be a make it or break it situation with new readers. Do you want them to come to your blog and fall in love with it, or be completely turned off & leave before they’ve had a chance to read your awesome content? Probably the former, right? Well, I’m here to help!
*Before I begin, I just want to say that these are just what I think will help. Not everyone is the same, not every blog requires these to gain new readers. These are just things that I look for when I’m visiting new blogs and that I think will help you make your homepage awesome!
Here are 5 tips to rock your homepage to get new readers to stick around!
A SHORT ABOUT ME
When someone first visits your blog they may want to know who you are. What is your name? What do you blog about? What are some of your interests? While you should have a full about me page, some people like to have quick information. That’s where a short about me comes in.
You should, somewhere early on, have a section that includes a picture of you, your name, and some quick facts about yourself and your blog. You don’t have to go too in-depth, even just a fun catch phrase is fine. Visitors shouldn’t have to scroll too far to find this information, either. A good place to put this is in your sidebar! Just like I do:
Pro-tip: Please, please, please include your name! It’s so important! I’ve had several people tell me that they like to know the blogger’s name and when they can’t find it on the blog it’s a letdown!
Your header image and the size of it
- Have a header image
- Don’t go crazy with the size
A header image, or blog logo, is a great way to make your blog’s name stand out and show what the design style of your blog might be. It should match the overall feel of your design from color to the elements used.
But don’t make it huge. It shouldn’t be the only thing people see when they first visit your home page, making them scroll to find your first post. There should be a visible menu and, possibly, your most recent post visible before scrolling is even needed. When it’s too big, all it’s doing is taking up valuable real estate.
Here’s how mine looks before even scrolling:
*Every browser and computer is different. So, don’t stress too much about this. However, don’t purposely ignore it & leave your header too big.
make scanning recent posts easy
Sometimes when I visit a blog, I want to read multiple posts. So, my tip is to make it easy for people to do that. Personally, I like it when the homepage has a list of posts and not the entire content of one post. You can do this in many ways, you can have a list like my homepage, or you can even do a grid. This allows people to open several posts, or get a quick idea of what kind of content you usually publish.
Color, color, color
Resist the urge to use clashing colors and neons, even if they’re your favorite colors. Most people have a hard time reading when the font is a bright green and the background is black. It’s also a little chaotic to visit a homepage that has way too many colors going on, usually paired with a black background. Keep your color scheme simple. My advice would be to theme everything around 2-3 colors that pair well together and are easy to read.
This is something I would highly recommend you not do:
UTILIZE THOSE SIDEBARS
Make sure the content of your sidebars all serves a purpose. Don’t have things in there that just take up space. Everything in it should aid in the reader’s navigation or offer helpful information. What I recommend as the bare minimum:
- Your mini about me
- Follow buttons – for social media and following your blog (bloglovin’/subscription)
- Popular posts
- Search bar
You can also add things that are unique to your blog. For example, I have a link to my shop and a section for my Master Lists (movie release dates, read-a-thons, memes, etc).
Do any of these tips seem helpful to you? Do you already do them? If not, will you? What other tips do you have to create a great first impression?
26 Comments
Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes and YES! I’m so glad I’m already doing all these (#proud) but they are definitely points worth mentioning!I think a mini about me is really vital, especially to make your blog seems cozy and stand out. You are YOUR BRAND. I’m always using the read more tag to ensure that readers can look for what they like since I post a wide variety of topics.OH AND COLOUR. IT IS SO IMPORTANT.
yay! I’m glad you agree! Agreed with the read more tag. I post a variety of topics as well so what might be interesting to one person isn’t to another. Gotta give them the option to keep scrolling haha
These are all great tips! My blog is called Lola’s Reviews so at least my name is obvious from the start. My sidebar intro is a bit bland though, I might be able to make that a bit more interesting, it does include some important links.
I made sure to make my header smaller instead of as broad as the screen as else the header was all you see. My blog also has one post summary before you have to scroll down. I personally to also see the summaries only, so I can quickly see the most recent posts.
Oh wow that screenshot with the black background and green text looks pretty bad indeed. I am usually not too picky about the colors used on a blog, but I find dark text on a light background easier to read than light text on dark background.
I don’t have a popular posts widget in my sidebar, but i have added some other things like currently reading widget, link to my tour company and tours that are open for sign-up on my tour site.
hehe same. It’s hard to miss our names >.< hahah
I'm not picky about the colors but more of the combos? Like the photo. I can't really read light font or colored font on a dark background. Even if it's black and white. It's really hard for me to focus.
Every sidebar will be different! You have other things (like your business) that you want to share, so that's ok! These were more of just guidelines or starting points for people if they wanted to do a little ravamping 🙂
I feel like designing a blog is a never ending process. I'm constantly changing things lol
Great post! I really need to do some of these things! Your blog help posts are always so great! ?
aw thank you! Glad this was helpful 🙂
Honestly it annoys me when the homepage has entire posts. It makes me have to scroll a lot just to browse recent posts (which is especially difficult now that I have tennis elbow), it takes more time, sometimes it’s confusing and difficult to see where one post ends and another begins, it takes longer to load, on some blogs it causes only one or two posts to show up per page, etc.
I also agree it’s a good idea to make your header image small enough that it doesn’t take over the entire screen.
Btw, love the neon 90s version of you blog 😉 2-3 colors and 2-3 fonts, generally good advice for any sort of graphic design.
Exactly! I hate having to scroll to get to more posts. I usually do big blog hops where I visit a blog & click on multiple posts to read/comment on. It’s so much easier when I don’t have to scroll too far.
hahah I tried to pick the most obnoxious colors to demonstrate what I meant. I’ve seen several blogs that actually do that though. It’s too hard to read!
Great advice! As per usual! I’ve got a LOT of work to do on mine, but so little time to do it!
Aw, well I’m never done messing with mine. It’s a process haha I’m always changing things! Glad this one was helpful though 🙂
This is a great post, Molly! I completely agree about having the synopsis for posts on the front page. I want to easily see what you’ve done recently and pick and choose what to read. I might want to read all the posts, but particularly if they don’t have spoiler-free reviews, I get extra annoyed with scrolling.
I can tell I have a lot of work to do on my blog. Baby steps, I guess. Keep sharing your tips! I appreciate them a ton.
Yes, the summaries make it so much easier! Sometimes the most recent post isn’t something I’m interested in but several older ones will be! I don’t like taking too long to get to other posts hahah
Thank you! I’m glad they’re helpful 🙂
Awesome tips, Molly! Especially when it comes to my About Me widget. I need to fix mine a little. ☺
Thank you! I’m glad you found it helpful 🙂
Lovely post as always, Molly. I agree that including a name is important when blogger, even when you’re blogging anonymously. I understand that some people are not comfortable posting the real name online, but at least pick a pseudonym or stage name or whatever you want to call it. Blogging is like writing a book, an author name is important, be it real or not.
Yes! That’s perfectly okay to use a pseudonym. Just ANYTHING so people know what to call you instead of “blogger” hahah
Excellent tips as usual! It’s interesting to see how homepages have changed over the last few years. They used to be so graphic intensive, and now things are simpler and cleaner.
Tanya Patrice
Girlxoxo.com
That’s funny! Yeah, people seem to like minimal things now that are easy to focus on. At least, that’s the trend haha
Great post. I agree about having a short blurb of the posts. It makes it easier to navigate. I have been really unhappy with my header for a long time. Need to work on that. 🙂
It definitely does, especially for me because I like to right-click a few posts at a time. If you want to play around with a new header, Canva is great for that ! 😀
Yessss at having experts of posts on the home page! It’s so much more aesthetically pleasing and A LOT easier to navigate. Great post like always, Molly ♥
It is! It’s so much easier. For me, I like them clearly separated too. I didn’t include that in here because that’s a personal preference – but I just have a hard time differentiating posts when they’re in grid form? If that makes sense – like, when it’s image, summary, image, summary, all RIGHT next to each other in grid form. hahaah ok now I’m rambling.
Great tips….I really need to work on an about me…I am just so old & boring! LOL
hahaha girl, don’t worry. It was hard to make mine sound semi-interesting lol
Awesome advice! What are your tips on creating the header image? I want to improve but don’t know exactly how to. Also love the bloggers name in the blog name
Tips as in programs? I usually just use Canva for all of my blog graphics. It’s the easiest one to use and it’s free. Personally, for mine, I just wanted something girly. So, I went with flowers. It took me a while to come up with something for it. Maybe check out other people’s to see if they inspire yours! 🙂