Yesterday flyte launched a redesign of our Web marketing blog. It’s got the new look and feel that we introduced with our Web site a month or so back. I love the way it looks–’natch–and we’ve reduced a lot of the clutter the bugged me with the previous version. Although there’s still a lot of information, it’s cleaner, quieter, and easier-to-read.
It brings up an important question, however: how important is Web design for a blog?
I mean, isn’t a blog all about the quality of the content? Isn’t it about establishing your expertise? About helping you with search engine optimization? About warming leads and delivering them to your Web site for conversion?
Absolutely. Which is why your brand–your colors, your fonts, your imagery, your sense of humor (or lack thereof)–should be integrated into the design of the blog.
Yes, TypePad has dozens of attractive blog templates. WordPress has hundreds if not thousands of free templates, some from talented designers. But these are just starting points. You need to customize these (or hire a professional if necessary) to extend your brand.
Michael Levine, in his Tiffany Theory, espouses that:
a gift delivered in a box from Tiffany’s will have a higher perceived value than one in no box or a plain box.
The same is true with your blog. Here are a few reasons why blog design is important:
- To Differentiate Yourself. Choosing a blog template–or worse yet, going with the default template–makes your blog look like everyone else’s who didn’t have the foresight to create a unique look and feel for their blog. Have you ever seen how embarrassed two people get when they show up at a party with the same outfit?
- Design Helps Comprehension. Just because you CAN add forty chicklets to your page, rotating Flash imagery, a recent visitors via MyBlogLog, and all other sorts of bling, doesn’t mean you SHOULD. A good designer can help you organize your blog so that it’s easy-to-read and understand.
- Because Splogs Don’t. With splogs clogging up the blogosphere, scraping content from other blogs and pretending to be real blogs, it’s more difficult for your blog to be seen as a legitimate source of wisdom. However, one thing that I haven’t seen splogs do is spend a lot of time on design. By creating a unique design you add legitimacy to your voice.
- You Want to Be Taken Seriously. Have you ever received a business card and on the back it say, "Get your own free business cards today by calling…." Makes you wonder how serious this person is about their business that they’re promoting the fact that they’re using free business cards with a plug on the back for the printer. If you’re not investing in your blog, people will wonder if you’re serious about it. Of course, if you’ve been blogging steadily for over a year most people will realize your serious…assuming they check your archives.
- You Don’t Want to Confuse Your Customers. I hated the fact that over the past month visitors to our blog saw one design and when they popped over to our Web site it was completely different. I’m sure a few wondered if the two were from the same company. All of your marketing material should be branded the same way so when a visitor moves from your email newsletter to your Web site to your blog there’s no disconnect.
If you’ve got any other ideas on why blog design is important, please leave a comment. Or, if you think blog design is overrated, leave a comment. If you want to promote your organic Cialis, Texas Hold ‘Em Site, or Bull Dogs for Sale, please keep moving. (Links to Russian bride sites still being accepted.)
BTW, if you haven’t read it yet, be sure to check out "The 11 Biggest Mistakes Small Business Bloggers Make."
Rich Brooks
Business Blog Design
