How to Design A Blog: The 13 Best Practices of the Top 100+ Marketing Blogs

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So much is written about blog content.

Much less is written about the container of that content.

But the design and structure of the blog?are a big part of your visitors’ experience. If we are thoughtful when we design the blog templates, we can create a better experience for our readers.

The content will be easier to find, easier to read, easier to share, easier to sign up and get more.

There are two templates on every blog: the blog main page template and the blog post detail template. They hold everything in your content marketing together.

We looked at 100+ top marketing blogs to see the design trends, and what features appear on the blog post templates in 2021.

Here are the research and recommendations, along with decision criteria for what might work best for your?blogging platform, starting from the top of the blog layout.

Search tool

Even with careful curation, blogs are still piles of articles, listed in reverse chronological order. The search tool is a popular way to help visitors find relevant content quickly.

76% of blogs have a search tool. About half of those just show the icon (click to see the search field and enter your query) and half show the open search field.

The blog designer is making a decision about the visual prominence of the tool. Should it be a very prominent, big open box? Or tucked away behind an icon? On every post or just in the main blog template?

Analytics can help inform this decision. If you have a search tool (and Analytics is?set up properly) you’ll get insights in your site search reports. These reports show how popular your search tool is.

These reports also show what your visitors are searching for and when they don’t click after searching (% search exits) which usually means they’re unhappy. Here’s how to do analysis of the site search reports?in case you’ve never checked.

Should I add a site search feature to my blog?

If your blog is a resource with a large body of content on a variety of topics, add a search tool. If Analytics shows that the search tool isn’t popular, remove it or reduce its visual prominence.

Author name and photo

Virtually all blogs show the name of the author. Most blogs also show the picture of the author.?63% of the blogs in our dataset show the author’s face in the template.?

Seeing the author’s face helps build a connection between the reader and the content. It makes the content more human, maybe even giving a boost in social engagement.?“They look friendly, I should look them up on LinkedIn, Facebook or Slapchat.”

The identity of the author is also important for?thought leadership marketing. The visual just makes their identity stronger.

Should I put the author’s face into the design of my blog?

Unless you are not active in social media and no one involved in the content program is interested in personal branding, add the face.

Published dates

Most blogs show the date the post was published. Some show two, the date published and the date updated. In our review of the 100 marketing blogs, we found that?71% of blogs show the publish date for each article.

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