Make Your Blog Easier to Read With These 6, Simple Design Ideas

People may admire your blog because the theme is stylish. But most will leave quickly if the text and links are not easy to read.

Your blog may not seem hard to read to you, because you already know what it says. But it may still make your visitors' eyes tired. So they leave and may never return.

Looking at blogs these days, I find many are so hard to read that they make my eyes hurt. So I don't read them --- even when I'm interested in the subject.

There are millions of blogs. I just move on to another on the same topic.

Research shows that you have only 5 to 8 seconds to capture a potential reader. So I know other people are leaving without reading, too.

That's sad, because many of these bloggers are good writers. They have something interesting and valuable to say, but they are unaware of their blog design problem. They already know what their blog says, so they don't realize how hard it is for others to read it.

If you know just a few things about typography, you can make your blog or website much easier to read --- and more appealing to your potential audience. So you can keep new readers and attract even more.

Typography is the art and science of designing and using typefaces --- what most people call fonts. (Actually, a font is one particular size and style of a typeface, such as or 9 pt Arial italics or 10 Times Roman.)

What does that have to do with blog design, since most people simply choose a ready made theme? A lot, if you want people to stay and read your blog.

It is important to choose a theme that is easy read. That has a lot to do with the typefaces that are part of the theme --- not only which typefaces, but what sizes and what colors they are.

Doing just these few things can help make your blog easier to read:

1. Choose a theme that has black text on a white background. Not gray, not blue, not yellow orange or green or lavender---black! It may not seem as cool, but it will be read --- and that's what you want.

White or light colored text and links on a dark background are much harder to read. If you want people to read your blog, avoid them. If you do use them, the type has to be much bigger and bolder, or people won't read it.