What is more important for a blog: Content or Design?
I just started a blog and wanted to know if adding features to the blog and/or enhance the design would be worthwhile monetarily.
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Aug 9, 2018
“Web design and content are like the yin and the yang, perfectly balancing one another. Or, if you prefer to think of it in terms of form vs. function, great website design is the form that creates the vital first impression. Content is the Function, the device that attracts search engines, intrigues your audience, and drives measurable results.”
-Good design attracts people to your website. Good content keeps them there.
-Your web design and written content work together to develop a cohesive branding message.
-Both design and content are key factors in obtaining a better position in search engine results.
So before this turns into a knockdown, drag-out struggle to steal the spotlight, be sure you understand that web design and content marketing are equally important to the development of a successful online presence. Instead of competing, your design and content must work together. A great website can’t have one without the other!
Aug 8, 2018
Both are important for the blog in their own ways, they go hand in hand.
'Content is the king' as said by many is true.' If the content is good the user is going to remember you and will surely visit again. Your content should connect with your audience.
On the other hand, a person hardly spends any time on a page with a design that is dull or boring, it is very necessary to make sure that the design is attractive to keep the audience hooked to the page.
Hope this was helpful.
Jul 24, 2018
Both are important for a website. Good content brings organic traffic from Google search and design increase user or visitor engagement to your website.
Jul 24, 2018
As per the latest trends, both are required because a design helps users to easily navigate and content engage with the audience.
Jul 4, 2018
Heyo,
Both are equally important, but I would stress focusing on developing a functional blog without all the bells and whistles. Remember, more users are accessing content on mobile devices than ever right now, and the numbers will only continue to increase in the coming years. I've seen businesses focus too much on aesthetics and churn out boring content, resulting in little-to-no conversions. With mobile sending nearly 50% of traffic to the majority of websites these days, chances are that users won't even notice any cool features you implement on a blog. On the flipside, I've worked with businesses that had functional blogs that generated a lot of traffic, leading to a significant increase in conversions.
In terms of adding features to a blog, I would stress against anything but social sharing and lead gen forms (depending on the type of website you own). Implementing superfluous features or designing an ostentatious blog will only serve to impress people, but not necessarily lead to conversions. However, if you invest your time into creating authoritative and informative content, you'll increase the visibility of your blog via search engines, which can lead to an uptick in conversions.
I hope that helps!
Jun 21, 2018
Both. User experience is what Google pays its close attention to. Therefore, you need to work on a comfy yet up-to-date design and a content. It has to attract people.
There are many people who generate leads from their blog because it looks awesome and it has a strong voice. Like Ahrefs's blog is in their top 3 for generating leads. Isn't it amazing?
Never stop working on your website design. Install a heat map. For that, I could recommend Hotjar. Their free version allows up to 300 video recordings and data on the heat map. Though you will have a dofollow external link on your website. Collect data on how users behave on your site and work with it.
Jun 14, 2018
As we all know "Content is the King" so considering that, Design is the queen. Yes, quality content is very much required to make your blog successful, yet design delivers the right vibes to your visitors.
May 20, 2018
I think it all depends on your purpose in running your blog. If you run a blog to support your main business, create content that can help support your customers. But if you run a blog to become a publisher of a certain niche, make your blog design user-friendly and submit useful content. Both content and web design are important if you want to optimize your blog for search engines. Most search engines rank deep content better and get pages with light web design to the first page of the search results. But if we talk about SEO there are many things to optimize your site design and its content such as on-page SEO, keyword destiny, sitemap, and so on.
May 15, 2018
Both can be equally important.
If you use a blogging platform, such as Ghost, Medium or WordPress, the design is mostly handled for you via templates.
Don't try to get something too elaborate for the blog, there are many turnkey, SEO ready templates available for free or cheap.
That leaves you with being able to focus on content and marketing.
May 15, 2018
Hi,
I would say the ratio is 70-30. Obviously, people are there to read about the topic so the content is important but at the same time, it will impress the readers if it is written in a neat, clean and proper way. Nobody wants to waste their time.
Thanks!
May 1, 2018
I would say the main element of a blog is the content and the domain authority. The design does play a part but as long as its a usable and readable design, I would not spend a lot of time on it. A design you like may not appeal to the next person. It's just like movies & restaurants, you may love something but the next person may hate it. Design is a very personal thing.
Content, on the other hand, is why the viewer is likely to be visiting your site. So relevant content will have a far more lasting impact on a viewer than design.
May 1, 2018
I want to say the most important for a blog is to first set your goal. What do you want the end user to get out of your blog? Then, you can work with content and design to ensure the goal is met. I've seen tons of blogs. Some that are to text heavy and it is hard to follow, others that have too pretty of a design and I bounce all over the place.
If you keep your blog focused on the goal the end user will surely get what is needed out of your content and enjoy your design!
Mar 31, 2018
From my experience, obviously content. I've seen very minimalistic designs with awesome content (a wide range of comprehensive information, images, charts, interviews - Google loves all these stuff).
Also, a very complicated theme (tons of sliders, subscription pop-ups etc.) might make it for some users difficult to get around and these days you need to grab someone's attention as soon as the page loads.
Respect your visitor, think like you'd be the visitor.
Keep all clean and simple is the way in my opinion.
Good luck!
Mar 19, 2018
Content is more important than design when it comes to blogging. But if your blog design is good, that is definitely a plus that helps to attract visitors. Always keep in mind that content is king...
Mar 13, 2018
Hi Abdulaziz,
Yes, both, but content first. Your great content will have excellent titles like "The 5 most ambitious IT developers in the world" or "Top 10 mistakes every great dentist easily makes". Your website should have easy-to-read paragraphs related to timely news, your business, backstage scenes of your companies, your expertise, and will definitely have to be equipped with good SEO marketing.
However, if your existing blog is not working as well as you expect it to, I would suggest considering your design first and focus on the audience website experience, not just the colouring and the layout.
As for design, it is important to have it offer an easy path to your audience/visitors to come to your service page or whatever the page that you want them to see and eventually to buy your services. Online purchase has a lot to do with emotions and sleek and functional design that's well-thought-out would be absolutely worthwhile investing in.
Hope this helps.
Mar 6, 2018
For me both are important but quality of content matters a lot as compared to design for blogs.
Mar 3, 2018
First of all congratulations for setting up your new blog.
Well, for a blog website you need a mix of several things, you cannot be succeeded by relying on only 1 element. But the question is how much you need to concentrate on each element? The answer totally depends on your niche you are writing for.
I would appreciate if you can share more details here so I can guide you better.
Mar 2, 2018
It is not Content, or Design, but both.
These are not mutually exclusive but work with each other to produce readable content of value to the reader.
Design includes contextual imagery, headlines and subheads that ensure visual hierarchy and readability, pull quotes and images that break the rhythm, drop caps that capture attention, etc.
A great example of good blog design would be:
a] Think With Google [check this blog: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-resources/experience-design/mobile-shopping-ecosystem/]
b] Another would be the long form articles at The Verge [check this one: https://www.theverge.com/transportation/2017/12/12/16651026/faraday-future-investigation-money-debt-finances-yueting]
Content has to spell value to the reader and for stickability. Design eggs the reader to stay on and read - maximizes the value.
Mar 1, 2018
Content is most important, while you cannot ignore design as well.
SEO is how customers arrive at your online doorstep. To have a better SEO, you need to have a better content strategy in your blog.
Good point Jonathon.
Recently Google announced they are leading the search engine results with their mobile index as the priority, which means that your site MUST be fast and have a good user experience on mobile to get organic traffic.