First impressions always last – whether it comes to people, foods, or websites. If the layout of your website is unorganized, most people will automatically get a bad impression and leave after a short amount of time. How you choose to organize your website affects how people will respond and interact with it.
While many methods of increasing traffic to your website require money, keeping your website organized will have people coming back for no extra charge. Furthermore, an organized website makes the addition of new material much easier. Follow these tips below to keep your blog organized to not only make your life easier, but to also increase traffic to your website:
1. Categorize your blog posts.
Visitors to your website are trying to look for a solution to a problem, be entertained, learn something new, etc. In order to help your audience find what they are looking for, it is crucial to organize all of your information into distinct categories. There are numerous different ways to do this. For example, if your blog offers different cooking recipes, consider organizing them into different types of food, such as Mexican, Chinese, Greek, etc.
If time is an important factor to the information on your blog, you can organize your posts in a chronological sequence, either by month or by year. If there is no relation between your posts, consider organizing them alphabetically. By getting into the habit of organizing all your new material, this can also spill over into organizing other areas of your life, such as your work/life balance and even cleaning your house.
2. Develop a main structure.
With a smaller website, it can be easy to display all your links on the home page. However, as the content of your website grows, it is vital to create a hierarchical structure that shows your audience what your website provides. Consider
implementing a drop down menu leading to your different categories on your home page.
Set up a navigational menu on the side of your web page that allows your users to maneuver around the website without having to go back to the main page each time. Think of the file system on your computer drive and try to apply something similar to your website.
3. Use headers.
It is important to understand that not many people are going to read every single word on your website. In fact most people will scan and pick up what stands out. This is why it is always a smart move to use headers to break up your text. Your headings should always summarize the text that follows. This helps readers figure out what the point of the next paragraph is and decide if it interests them enough to continue reading.
This not only helps your readers, but also assists search engines in finding your content which increases traffic to your website. Be sure to focus on key words related to your topic because this will increase your search engine optimization, meaning web users will have an easier time finding your website when they are searching the Internet. Keep in mind that key words are not only in your headers and page titles, but also in meta tags that search engines use.
4. Keep your paragraphs short.
The paragraphs in your blog posts should never be excessive. Write just enough so that readers will understand what you’re trying to get at. Most visitors to your website will quickly skim through a long paragraph, but there is a bigger
chance that they will read a short one. See, you just read this whole paragraph.
5. Keep things simple.
When visitors come to your website, their focus starts off at the top left of the home page and gradually travels to the right. Web users are more focused on the page’s text instead of the images. By removing all unnecessary visual stimuli, it
makes your website easier to read, information easier to find, and the overall look of the site more visually appealing.
The more texture and color added to your background, the more distracting it is and the less evident your actual text. Be
careful when using bright colors like red or yellow because this can cause a temporary loss of brainpower from the hard mental work, causing the reader to lose focus on what they’re reading. Furthermore, you want your pages to load as quickly as possible, and excessive graphics will make this take longer.
This is a guest post by Kenneth McCall, check out the guidelines to guest post here.
Image Credit: Loony Hiker
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