Welcome to part 3!
15. Logo
A large logo or image placed in your header takes up valuable space on your page and increases it’s load time. Keep it small and simple or discard it altogether and rely on the power of your title alone. Your site is all about providing visitors with good content not showing how shiny your header graphic is.
16. Photo
You might be drop dead gorgeous but people don’t really care too much about that! They care more about what you can do for them. You might think they want to see your pretty face every time they load your page but I assure you that most people are looking for content. If you do add a photo, keep it small. My advice is add an about me page instead for the more curious types.
17. Links
Make your links look like links! Blue underlined is my preference. If you asked someone to describe what a hyperlink looks like (in fact I checked this by asking my girlfriend!) most would say blue, underlined text. Underlined isn’t absolutely necessary nor is the colour blue but anything that increases the chance of your links being clicked can only be a good thing.
Also make them interesting to hover over and click. You’ll notice mine change to red. Red is known to encourage people to take action. Do not overdo the colours though. Remember support not distract.
18. Fonts
Fonts should be easy to read. I recommend black on white, I don’t recommend justifying your text as this makes it harder to read. For your body text I recommend Arial or Verdana. For titles I recommend Tahoma or Arial. As far as font size I recommend 12pt Arial for body text. The font you are reading is set at 12pt Arial.
19. Content area
I recommend your content section (your post area) is not too wide. You don’t want people to have to move their head from side to side to try and read your text. Mine is set to 550px which I think is optimal – you might disagree, see what works for you.
20. White space
White space around your text is very important and makes it much easier to read. Pay particular attention to line spacing. This is something that is often overlooked. If your lines are too close together your text will be harder to read. Too far apart and this gives the perception that your work is a little light on content. My body font is 12pt Arial and my lines are usually spaced between 17px and 20px.
21. Background Colour
Have a high contrast background colour so that your eye is drawn into the page and towards your content. I opted for dark gray but dark blues and blacks work well. The rule of thumb is, as long as there is good contrast between your posts and your background this will make your blog easier to read.
22. Colours
Keep these to a minimum. Nice blues, fresh greens, anything that looks clean and supports your content without distracting from it. In other words, nothing too bright or gaudy.
23. Theme
I’m not going to recommend specific themes here but choose one that has a layout that you like. Something clean and simple. Don’t worry too much about dimensions and colours, you can always tweak the code if you are comfortable doing this. Find one that adheres to most of the principals in these posts. You can always edit it to your liking afterwards.
The 4th and final part of this series will be posted on Friday. See you then!
