Templates play an important role in the success of your blog. They can affect your traffic, the reader, SEO and much more. There are many different things you need to keep in mind when choosing a template but honestly the greatest problem that site owners face is the inability to choose! Below are a few tips to help you choose the perfect template for your blog or website and hopefully it will be one that will work for years to come.
1.Design
A Good design is a mode of attracting your readers to come to your site again. It’s like having a warm inviting home (with a good couch). If your home is messy and uninviting to guest, they won’t want to visit you again. If your design is good and is easy to navigate, then users will want to come back to your site (we’re not taking into account content right now, which definitely plays an even bigger role). Beyond being inviting and easy to navigate, design really depends on your needs. There are many kinds of styles to choose from, like the magazine/news style, a product showcase design, a one pager or a great business layout. If your site is a significant part of your business by either selling products, generating revenue or creating leads, think about hiring out a custom design that perfectly meets your needs.
2.Speed
Speed matters… A lot… Your visitor have no patience when it comes to internet browsing. If your website is too slow (like 5 seconds or more!), they will be gone before they arrive. If you pay attention to phone or computer ads, what are they always trying to convince you of? They they are the fastest around (new faster processors). So be sure to choose a template with good speed, If you don’t people will leave your website even if you have good content. Speed also plays an important role in the SEO. Google knows how important site speed is and they put a high level of importance on your site speed. A good way to test your site’s speed is to run the demo through Google’s site speed test, no, it’s not perfect, but it’s a start.
3.Responsive or Not
Today, a responsive design is really the only way to go as nearly 40% of all web traffic is mobile. Like we said before, online guests want their information fast (and easily accessed). If your site is hard to view on a mobile device, they will leave immediately. Creating a separate mobile site is no longer the preferred method, if your template isn’t responsive, look for a new one.
4.Fonts
Most people ignore fonts, but fonts are really important in order to have an attractive and easy to navigate website. Font’s are an art form in and of themselves, they really cannot be overlooked. A good place to look for and find fonts for your website are at Google Fonts. Also, here are a few highly recommended font combinations that you can find at Google Fonts.
- Roboto & Roboto Slab
- Raleway and Merriweather
- Lustria and Lato
- Ubuntu and Lora
- Quattrocento and Quattrocento Sans
5.Its Up To You
We have provided just a starting point, now it’s totally up to you which kind of template you want and which is best suited to your blog. The best way to start is to determine what your needs are and then to find templates that can best fulfill your needs. Look at many different templates before choosing yours, look at premium, free and even contact a designer (like Ryan) if you decide that custom may be a good choice.
